President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is barring three major news organizations from the White House, effective immediately.
"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW ... and Politico ... from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
"Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America," he continued, before suggesting the ban would widen. "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."
Trump uncorked two false claims into the announcement as parenthetical asides. He described MS NOW as having "recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!" The network became MS NOW on Nov. 15 because Comcast spun its cable networks into a separate company, Versant, and NBCUniversal retained exclusive rights to the Peacock brand. The network kept its programming lineup and expanded its Washington bureau during the transition.
He then called Politico the recipient of "an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them 'alive.'"
"Seems like corruption to me!" he wrote.
That figure is a recycled claim that fact-checkers debunked last year. Federal agencies across the government spent roughly $8 million in 2024 on subscriptions to Politico Pro and E&E News, paywalled products offering policy tracking and specialized reporting. USAID's share was $24,000, according to CBS News. Agencies also paid for subscriptions to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The number entered circulation through a conservative commentator's viral thread in February 2025, after which the White House announced it would cancel the subscriptions. Politico has said it has never received government funding in its 18 years.
Trump did not specify what the ban entails or when it takes effect beyond "immediately."
The announcement extends a pattern of access restrictions.
The administration removed Reuters, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News from the permanent press pool, barred the AP from events where Trump speaks after it declined to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and in October 2025 closed the West Wing area housing the press secretary's office to reporters without appointments.
The White House Correspondents' Association said at the time that it "unequivocally opposes any effort" to limit journalists from areas long open for newsgathering.