Trump TV Goes Live as the White House Press Pool Goes Dark and Three Newsrooms Sue

The White House launched its own 24-hour news channel at 7 p.m. ET on Monday 21 September — the same day the television press pool that covers the president told its members it was standing down, and CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued over being barred from the building.

Washington, DC - President Donald Trump announced the ban on the three outlets on Truth Social on Friday 18 September, writing that he was banning "Fake News CNN, MSNOW ... and Politico" over "their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" On Saturday 19 September, reporters for the three outlets were turned away at the White House, and their press badges were deactivated and taken by the Secret Service. By Monday evening, the White House had a channel of its own.

Trump TV Goes Live as the White House Press Pool Goes Dark and Three Newsrooms Sue

What the White House Launched at Seven O'Clock

The White House launched "Trump TV: The Essentials Station" on Monday 21 September at 7 p.m. ET. It runs as a 24/7 stream on YouTube, and it is embedded as a YouTube window on the White House website, next to a box titled "White House Live" that read "Off Air" and advised viewers to "Stay Tuned." Beneath both windows ran a chyron praising Trump's actions as president.

The official White House description reads: "Watch the Trump Administration's biggest moments all in one place. Top videos, major remarks, and must-see highlights streaming 24/7 and updated in real time. Stay informed and stay up to date!"

A White House post on social media said: "TRUMP TV IS STREAMING NOW. 24/7, updated in real time, with top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place. Not every big moment has made it on your tv, now it can." The same announcement elsewhere read: "Get real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone. No noise. Just the news that matters most - straight from the Trump Administration."

Its first broadcast was Trump's 3 July speech at Mount Rushmore.

A Pool That Had Never Gone Dark

The White House press pool dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, and network cameras have covered the president since 1950, according to the White House Correspondents' Association. The pool rotates daily: the association says it moves through roughly 32 print outlets, with smaller television and radio rotations, and that the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters hold permanent slots.

The television pool is smaller still — CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and Fox News. One network camera crew broadcasts a feed shared with the other outlets. The Associated Press, in its own account, said the networks announced a joint statement standing in solidarity with CNN after Trump denied the White House access to reporters of the three outlets.

The five networks said in that 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." CBS News' own account renders the verb as "reject"; the version posted to X by NBC News communications and used by CNBC and the Guardian is "restrict."

The Email That Ended It

On 21 September, Bryan Boughton — Fox News' Washington bureau chief and chair of the television pool consortium — wrote to pool members. USA TODAY, CNBC and the Guardian quoted the email: "Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President. This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal. We will provide updates as this situation develops."

CNN had been the designated television "pooler" for the day, and Trump was due to fly to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The White House declined to credential CNN. CNBC reported NBC's indication that the pool had not said whether the suspension would continue past Monday.

The print, radio and wire press pool continued to report Trump's movements through the day. So did the networks' own correspondents — just from outside the grounds.

Three Newsrooms, One 27-Page Filing

CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed their federal lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Hill reports the filing runs to 27 pages. It names President Donald Trump, White House communications director Steven Cheung, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as defendants.

The three outlets seek a temporary restraining order to lift the ban and restore the reporters' "hard pass" credentials and access. The complaint says the ban "could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles." It says the block "retaliates against protected newsgathering and speech in violation of the First Amendment," bars journalists "from a nonpublic forum for unlawful reasons," and "inflicts irreparable harm to these news organizations."

The filing states that Trump's statements "make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage of the administration from CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from reporting that the President might view as unfavorable." It adds that the ban "impermissibly chills the speech of other news organizations and journalists."

The outlets said in a joint statement: "Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference." They added: "We are filing this lawsuit to protect our First Amendment rights."

The Judge Who Ruled for Acosta

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, according to The Hill. Trump nominated Kelly in his first term, and the Senate confirmed him in September 2017 by a vote of 94-2.

Kelly is not new to White House press litigation. In 2018, he ordered the restoration of then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass, finding his due-process rights had been violated. Brian Karem, then of Playboy, also won his badge back in that period.

Trump posted about Kelly on Truth Social on Monday: "They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet. In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we'll go for appeal."

The hearing on the news organisations' motion for a temporary restraining order is set for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET, by videoconference. Kelly ordered the administration to respond by Tuesday.

What the White House Says

The White House rejects the framing that it is attacking the press. In a statement, it said: "Access changes are nothing new. What is new, however, is the sudden claim that it becomes sacred only when the outlets are friendly to the Radical Left. The rule was never 'every outlet gets in.' It was always 'our side stays in.'"

A White House official, responding to the networks, said the media has no place "demanding a spot in the President's Oval Office," and that journalists are capable of reporting from directly outside the White House. The White House said Trump's decision followed what it characterised as "years of false reporting."

Vice President JD Vance, speaking to reporters before travelling to Greensboro, North Carolina, said: "He's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda." Vance alleged that 92% of the stories from CNN, MS NOW and Politico about Trump are "negative," and said the outlets "still have the access to free speech."

Trump, on Truth Social, wrote: "The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something which has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America."

The Helipad and the Helicopter

On Monday afternoon, Trump held a ribbon-cutting for a new White House helipad before departing for New York. With no pool boom microphones present, his remarks were inaudible on the White House's own livestream, drowned out by Marine One's engines.

No network television crew travelled with him to the United Nations General Assembly. That is the practical cost of Monday's email: the feed that normally reaches every affiliate and every competing network did not exist.

Trump, speaking at Gracie Mansion, said: "It's interesting because they said where they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn't very worried about that." He gestured at the assembled press and said: "Look at all that press." Of the banned outlets he said: "They're very bad for the country, very bad for national security ... So we'll see how it works out."

The Photographers' Quiet Refusal

Reuters, Getty Images, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press, among the outlets with still photographers in the White House photo pool, agreed not to publish or distribute photographs taken on 21 September until midnight ET, according to the Washington Post.

The Post described the step as part of a "collective effort." The images were made. They sat. For the rest of that day, the public did not see them.

The White House Correspondents' Association president, Jacqui Heinrich, a senior Fox News White House correspondent, said in a statement on Saturday that the White House "cannot deny that access arbitrarily or based on the content of their reporting." Politico said the White House claim that it received government subsidies is false: "The claims that POLITICO received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked." CNN called the ban an "illegal assault" on constitutionally protected rights.

What This Owes to Last Year's Fights

Last year, the administration barred the Associated Press from press pool events in the Oval Office after the wire service refused to adopt Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." The AP sued. A federal judge in Washington initially ordered access restored, and an appeals court later allowed the ban to take effect. That case remains unresolved.

MS NOW's account of the wider pattern also cites the firing of journalists leading the military's independent newspaper and unusual reviews of broadcast licences by federal officials, with previous attempts to bar reporters from the White House and the Pentagon still in litigation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X: "First, Trump banned independent news from the White House. Now, he's launching what is quite literally state-run TV to try drowning out the fact that he and his corrupt administration are failing the American people. This is truly autocratic behavior from a failed President."

What Happens on Wednesday

Judge Timothy J. Kelly hears the news organisations' motion for a temporary restraining order at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, by videoconference, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The case turns on two questions. First, whether the White House can withdraw press credentials because it objects to an outlet's coverage. Second, whether a government can run its own news channel while shutting out the independent press.

Weijia Jiang, a former White House Correspondents' Association president, told Fox News: "An America cannot have state TV. That's what makes America America ... because you need independent actors to be able to be the observers. And if the government is only showing you what it wants, then you have to question: What are we missing."

No ruling has been issued. What is already true is that on Monday the White House gained a channel, and the reporters who cover it lost the room.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: The Hill, USA TODAY, CNBC, CBS News, The Guardian, Gray News, Fox News, MS NOW, The White House.