The White House has barred the news outlet Politico from traveling with President Donald Trump on Air Force One, preventing the publication from joining the small pool of correspondents that follow the president during out‑of‑town trips. The exclusion was confirmed by a Politico spokesperson after the White House announced that the outlet would not be part of Monday’s travel pool. CNN was the first to report the ban.
The move follows a federal judge’s order that the administration restore press passes to journalists from CNN, Politico and MS NOW, who the president had said he was “banning” from the White House. The judge rejected the administration’s claim that the ban was justified by national security concerns and noted that the record lacked evidence that revoking the passes would protect national security.
White House officials have argued that removing individual outlets from the travel pool is a “privilege, not a right,” and that the president remains the most accessible leader in American history. The Justice Department has also said the outlets failed to meet “minimum requirements of professionalism” and therefore do not have a First Amendment right to all areas of the White House.
Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to return to the courtroom on Thursday to decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would keep the White House from stripping press access while the legal challenge continues. The judge’s temporary restraining order, which expired on October 8, required the White House to reinstate credentials and allow reporters onto White House grounds, but did not explicitly cover participation in the Air Force One pool. If the judge does not grant an injunction, lawyers warn that harms to the press could quickly compound as the parties prepare for the next hearing.
