Trump, who frequently accuses mainstream media outlets of writing “fake news,” said in a Truth Social post that those outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES.”
He did not identify any specific coverage. But he added, “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
In the Oval Office later Friday afternoon, Trump said he was imposing the ban in response to “cumulative stories” by the three outlets.
“You get sick of it,” he said.
Trump, whose White House briefly tried to suspend a CNN reporter’s press pass in 2018 and is currently in a lawsuit over an attempted ban of Associated Press journalists, said the bid to bar more news outlets was worthwhile even if it does not hold up in court.
“I think it’s good to point it out whether it survives or doesn’t,” Trump said.
Trump has long targeted news outlets and individual journalists over what he claims is unfair coverage. He encourages his supporters at political rallies to boo and jeer at reporters present, and he regularly takes to social media to call out journalists by name and insult them in personal terms.
But the attempt to block White House access to disfavored news outlets takes Trump’s open hostility for critical reporting to a new extreme.
It could also draw legal challenges over violations of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects the freedom of the press.
“In our view, it’s unconstitutional,” Arthur Spitzer, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview with CNBC when asked about Trump’s post.
“He’s plainly discriminating against them because they don’t like the way they report the news, and the government isn’t supposed to do that,” the lawyer said. “Certainly, our view is the president cannot control, or try to control, the news by banning outlets from official events because he doesn’t like the way they’re reporting on him.”
Spitzer is representing the ACLU in an ongoing case related to Trump’s ban of AP journalists from spaces including the Oval Office and Air Force One.
Trump sought to bar the wire service from those places following its decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its centuries-old name despite Trump’s attempt to rename it the “Gulf of America.”
A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that Trump’s action against the AP was “contrary to the First Amendment.” An appeal of that decision is still pending.
Asked for comment on Trump’s Friday post, the White House referred CNBC to the president’s latest comments in the Oval Office. MS NOW had no immediate comment. CNBC has reached out for comment from CNN and Politico.
Weija Jiang, who served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association until July, responded to the Friday post by quoting the First Amendment.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” the amendment reads.
The correspondents’ association, whose current president is Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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Disclosure: CNBC and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.
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