CNN WIRE

By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump White House said Friday that The Associated Press is banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One indefinitely.

The AP, one of the world’s biggest news outlets, was singled out by the White House earlier this week over three words: “Gulf of Mexico.”

President Donald Trump said last month that the US government would rename the body of water the “Gulf of America.” The change has taken effect at government agencies. But other countries do not recognize the new name, and the AP has customers around the world, so it still refers to the Gulf of Mexico while also acknowledging Trump’s decree.

Other global news outlets have made similar decisions.

But this week the White House singled out the AP and barred its reporters from presidential events.

Photographers for the AP were still allowed to attend.

Shortly before Trump departed the White House for Mar-a-Lago on Friday, the administration confirmed that the AP would not be allowed on Air Force One for the trip, either.

In a statement on X, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich pointed to the Gulf dispute, saying the AP’s decision “is not just divisive, but it also exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation.”

“While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One,” Budowich wrote. “Going forward, that space will now be opened up to the many thousands of reporters who have been barred from covering these intimate areas of the administration.”

He said AP journalists would retain credentials to the White House grounds.

But blocking the AP from what are known as “pooled” events, such as Air Force One flights, interferes with the news outlet’s ability to do its job.

The “press pool” travels with the president at all times and shares information with the wider press corps. The AP is so foundational to White House coverage that it helped create the pool in the first place.

“The first known instance of a so-called pool reporter inside the White House was in 1881 after President James A. Garfield was shot,” the AP explained earlier this week. “As the chief executive lay in bed, AP reporter Franklin Trusdell sat outside his sick room, listening to him breathe and sharing updates with other correspondents.”

The AP, a cooperative that transmits news to thousands of clients, has been a member of the pool ever since.

The AP did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Friday statement.

The wire service has repeatedly signaled that it is preparing a legal challenge. As one AP staffer remarked on condition of anonymity, “It’s hard to come up with a clearer case of viewpoint discrimination.”

The White House Correspondents Association determines which outlets are part of the pool rotation. The AP is included every day, but with the ban in place, that may be reassessed.

On Thursday, the WHCA, which represents the press corps, said the action against the AP “is a textbook violation of not only the First Amendment, but the president’s own executive order on freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.”