FILE PHOTO: A journalist looks at his mobile phone next to a sign which reads, "We Stand with AP", a reference to the case between the Associated Press and the White House, during the press briefing by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
President Donald Trump was ordered by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a judge he appointed, to stop the blacklisting of The Associated Press from White House press briefings and functions over their refusal to adopt Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, calling it a "brazen" assault on the First Amendment.
But the president appears to be flouting the order.
According to AP reporters, their outlet was blocked once again from an Oval Office meeting on Monday between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, where Trump boasted about defying a separate court order by the Supreme Court to "facilitate" the return of wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Ábrego García to Bukele's infamous gang megaprison.
Commenters on social media were furious about every aspect of this state of affairs.
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"NEW: An AP journalist was denied access to an Oval Office event with Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, despite a ruling by a federal judge last week ordering the WH to restore The Associated Press’s full access to cover presidential events on First Amendment grounds," wrote the Republicans Against Trump account, adding that Trump is "the most lawless president in modern American history."
"They violated a court order to keep the AP out of the event where they publicly violated a different court order," wrote Indignity.net editor Tom Scocca.
While much rage was directed at Trump, others vented their frustration at the White House Correspondents' Association, whose job, in theory, is to band together to protest or boycott White House events in response to attacks on their members.
"If only there was some sort of Association of White House Correspondents who could band together and do something about this," wrote Pennsylvania Capital-Star correspondent and Decision Desk HQ contributor Nick Riccardi.