The Associated Press is asking a federal judge for a second time to immediately restore its access to presidential events, arguing that the Trump White House has doubled down on retaliating against the news outlet for its refusal to follow the president's executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden last week refused AP’s request for an injunction to lift the ban against many of its reporters and photographers. But McFadden noted that case law weighed against the White House, and urged the administration to reconsider before a scheduled second hearing on March 20.
In an amended lawsuit filed late Monday, AP cited continued instances of journalists turned away — including a photographer not allowed on the West Palm Beach airport tarmac to document Air Force One's arrival — and the White House's decision to fully take control over membership of the pool that covers the president at smaller events.
“The net result is that the AP's press credentials now provide its journalists less access to the White House than the same press credentials provide to all members of the White House press corps,” the amended lawsuit argues.
The Trump administration did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday morning.
White House's move called a ‘targeted attack’
The AP filed its initial lawsuit on Feb. 21, naming three Trump officials – White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt – as defendants. The agency, a not-for-profit news organization in operation since 1846, called the White House’s move a “targeted attack” that strikes at the freedom of the press and public to speak freely without the threat of government retaliation.
The administration has said that it is not blocking the AP from reporting the news — or even the White House grounds — but access to the president is something that it controls. In recent days, it has broadened the group of outlets that participate in the coverage pools to include some that are clearly sympathetic to Trump’s views.
Trump has dismissed the AP as an organization of “radical left lunatics” and said: “We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”
The AP says that since the body of water is not totally within the United States, Trump's order would not extend beyond U.S. borders and would create confusion for its readers. AP's call on this issue takes on added weight because the AP Stylebook, its guide to news standards, is widely used by other news organizations and communicators. Its guidance was to continue to use Gulf of Mexico because the name is widely recognizable to an international audience, while acknowledging Trump's directive.
The White House ban “hinders the AP's ability to produce reporting and publish photographs quickly — an essential attribute of a wire service — causing delays that harm the AP and, as a result, the thousands of news outlets and billions of readers that rely on its journalism,” the agency said in its lawsuit.
Larger White House events also are barring AP, agency says
In addition to cutting the AP out of coverage pools, which it has participated in while covering presidents for more than a century, the AP said its Washington reporters were turned away from larger events open to all journalists with White House credentials who reserve in advance. They include recent state appearances by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
AP journalists from France, England and Ukraine who paid to travel with the foreign leaders' media contingents were permitted to cover those White House events, the AP said. An AP spokeswoman said the agency does not typically send its overseas journalists on such trips to the White House.
In the amended lawsuit, the AP says a source told its journalists that the ban had been expanded from text journalists to photographers specifically to deprive the organization of revenue it earns from selling pictures.
Dozens of news organizations signed a letter urging the White House to reverse its policy. The signees included Trump-friendly outlets like Fox News Channel and Newsmax.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
David Bauder, The Associated Press
