Trump Über Alles
Our petulant little leader has thrown another hissy fit. Donnie Trump has decided he doesn’t want any members of the news media asking questions he doesn’t want to answer, or printing stories he doesn’t like. As his latest attempt to stifle the press, he banned representatives of the cable channels CNN and MSNOW and the web site POLITICO from the White House campus, ordering the US Secret Service to confiscate their press passes. The two cable services immediately setup their cameras across the street.
WIU Professor of Broadcasting emeritus and Instagram commentator Samuel Edsall (@tvsam1) has imagined some mock dialogs which I copy here and which sum up the latest brilliantly:
Trump – “CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned. They report FAKE NEWS.”
Media – “Name one story that was fake.”
Trump – “You said I’m threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center.”
Media – “You are.”
Trump – “Oh. Well, you guys say bad things about me.”
Media – “Because you do bad things.”
Trump – “Oh.”
Media – “And you lie all the time.”
Trump – “I never lie.”
Media – “That’s our favorite.”
The rule of law has never meant anything to Trump, and we can expect all three news organizations to file petitions to block him as soon as the courts open for business. For the record, here are the precedents:
Sherrill v. Knight (1977): The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that once the White House sets up press facilities, it cannot exclude a credentialed journalist without a compelling reason. The court established that excluded reporters must receive explicit factual notice, a chance to respond, and a written explanation (due process).
CNN v. Trump (2018): When the Trump administration revoked CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass following a contentious news conference, CNN sued. A federal judge ordered the pass restored, ruling that the sudden revocation violated the reporter’s Fifth Amendment due process rights because the administration’s decision-making process was arbitrary and opaque.
Karem v. Trump (2020): The D.C. Circuit upheld a ruling blocking the Trump administration from suspending the press credentials of Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. The court reaffirmed that due process protections apply to White House press badges and that the government must provide fair notice before attempting discipline.
Associated Press v. Budowich (2025): After the administration restricted AP access to the Oval Office over an editorial naming dispute regarding the Gulf of Mexico, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction finding the selective exclusion amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
Press access to the White House is not the only issue Trump ranted about in the last week. Getting his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts remains high on his agenda. Here is another Edsall imagined dialog:
Americans – “Can you do something about inflation?”
Trump – “I want my name on the Kennedy Center.
Americans – “How about gas. Diesel is at a record high.”
Trump – “I want my name on the Kennedy Center.”
Americans – “Do you have any exit strategy on the Iran war?
Trump – “The greatest president in the world, ME, needs his name on the Kennedy Center.”
Americans – “Are you hearing anything we say?”
Trump – “I want my name on the Kennedy Center.”
Trump is not the only person living in a fantasy world. Vice-President and chief supplicant JD Vance has taken to pursing a fascinating line of reasoning as he campaigns on behalf of Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm election. The most recent NBC News poll shows Trump’s sinking ratings threaten to drag down Republicans as voters blame him for high prices and a shaky economy. Vance doesn’t even try to defend the record. He has been reduced to pleading with voters to give the administration more time to make good its promises.
Edsall again:
JD Vance – “Give us another chance. Give us another couple of years to continue to work on all the amazing things we’ve been doing for the past two years.”
America – “You promised no new wars.”
Vance – “Its an excursion.”
America – “He said on day 1 he would end inflation.”
Vance – “Affordability is a hoax.”
America – “He promised to cut our energy bill by 50%.”
Vance – “He did?”
America – “And interest rates.”
Vance – “He said that?”
America – “And end the Ukraine war.”
Vance – “Never mind.”
Fiction? Fact? Speculation? These days, what’s the difference?
Update 9-21
As predicted, the three news organizations filed a lawsuit against Trump and others demanding their press access to the White House be restored. They have asked for an emergency temporary restraining order. I have uploaded their complaint here.
The case has been assigned to Judge Timothy Kelley. He handled the 2018 lawsuit CNN v. Trump noted above. He has scheduled a hearing for Sept 23.
One of the blocked networks, CNN, was scheduled to be the “pool” covering Trump today and feeding video to all the pool members. With CNN access denied, the pool decided not to cover Trump today as he travels to New York for a speech tomorrow at the United Nations.
Bryan Boughton, the Washington bureau chief at Fox News and the acting chair of the television pool consortium, wrote in a note to pool members on Monday that the decision to halt TV pool coverage “follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties.” In the note, which was obtained by The New York Times, Boughton wrote that pool coverage of non-presidential events would continue as normal. “We will provide updates as this situation develops,” he wrote.
The five networks that have suspended their pool coverage of President Trump — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC — just issued a joint statement: “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
For the first time in my 30 years of covering the White House, the president will not have a network TV camera covering his everyday official actions and travels.
Update 9-24
All three media outlets that President Donald Trump banned from the White House were allowed back in Sept. 24 after US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee. ruled that the revocation of their credentials probably violated the Constitution.
Judge Kelly had ordered the administration to respond by 12:30 p.m. ET. CNN, MS NOW and Politico announced that their reporters were let back in just after noon, though many of them were initially denied access in the morning. Micah Stopperich, director of White House press operations, submitted a statement to the court that the press credentials were restored Thursday morning and available for retrieval before 10 a.m.
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