Trump defends banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House: ‘I don’t think a court should allow fake news’ At an Oval Office event to promote changes he says he’s making to the US healthcare system, including pressing for lower drug prices and reducing vaccine doses for children, Donald Trump defended his decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
Reminded by one correspondent that every president takes an oath to uphold the constitution, including the first amendment right to free speech, the president said, “you get so tired of reading and seeing fake news.”
“There may be others to join them,” Trump warned, before hinting that the New York Times and the Washington Post are on his list.
When another reporter reminded Trump that he had lost in court in 2018 when he tried to ban CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House, Trump tried to rewrite history by claiming that “we didn’t have to take it too far because the reporter that you’re talking about discredited himself.” In fact, after a judge ordered the White House to restore Acosta’s access, the first Trump administration relented immediately.
“I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” Trump went on. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time,” he insisted, apparently failing to understand a fundamental part of the US constitution.
Trump then went on to reveal that what he is mainly upset about is the tenor of coverage of him not being positive enough from non-partisan media outlets, while praising partisan, rightwing outlets.
“I get I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox,” Trump said. “But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth.”
Key events
Here is a statement from Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, on Donald Trump’s move to bar CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House for unflattering coverage of his work as president:
double quotation mark The First Amendment prohibits the president from punishing journalists because he doesn’t like their coverage, just as it prohibits him from punishing universities because he doesn’t like the courses they offer, or from punishing law firms because he doesn’t like the clients they represent. With so many courts having ruled against him on exactly this point, you’d think President Trump would have learned this lesson by now. If President Trump means to expel these news organizations from the White House press pool, his action is doubly unconstitutional because the press pool is a ‘public forum’ under the First Amendment, which means the president can’t exclude journalists from it on the basis of their viewpoints.
“Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done,” Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate Democrats posted in response to Trump’s move to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
Directly addressing Trump on social media, Schumer added: “this is a democracy. You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”
Trump says that his son paid back Kremlin-linked Russian who covered wedding party costs Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office on Friday if it was appropriate for Umar Kremlev, a Russian linked to the Kremlin, to have paid for part of Donald Trump Jr’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas, Donald Trump said “it’s totally allowed. But as I understand it, he paid him back.”
“A person that he knows pretty, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That’s very common, I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties,” Trump added.
When the reporter seemed to suggest that a Putin-connected boxing official was not just a routine friend to make such a gift, Trump replied: “Well, I don’t know, maybe he didn’t do a background check. But I’ve given wedding parties to numerous people.”
“With all of that being said, I understand that Don’s paid him back,” Trump added.
Donald Trump speaks during an Oval Office event to announce new pricing for some drugs on 18 September. Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock Trump defends banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House: ‘I don’t think a court should allow fake news’ At an Oval Office event to promote changes he says he’s making to the US healthcare system, including pressing for lower drug prices and reducing vaccine doses for children, Donald Trump defended his decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
Reminded by one correspondent that every president takes an oath to uphold the constitution, including the first amendment right to free speech, the president said, “you get so tired of reading and seeing fake news.”
“There may be others to join them,” Trump warned, before hinting that the New York Times and the Washington Post are on his list.
When another reporter reminded Trump that he had lost in court in 2018 when he tried to ban CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House, Trump tried to rewrite history by claiming that “we didn’t have to take it too far because the reporter that you’re talking about discredited himself.” In fact, after a judge ordered the White House to restore Acosta’s access, the first Trump administration relented immediately.
“I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” Trump went on. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time,” he insisted, apparently failing to understand a fundamental part of the US constitution.
Trump then went on to reveal that what he is mainly upset about is the tenor of coverage of him not being positive enough from non-partisan media outlets, while praising partisan, rightwing outlets.
“I get I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox,” Trump said. “But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth.”
Journalists, lawmakers attack Trump’s order to block news outlets from White House A flurry of journalists and Democratic lawmakers took to social media to criticize Donald Trump’s plan to bar several news outlets from the White House (also announced over social media).
“This is yet another attack on the First Amendment from a president who knows he and his party of bootlickers are deeply unpopular,” JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois and potential 2028 presidential contender, posted on X after the announcement. “Donald Trump can’t hide from his failing record, so he’s banning journalists he doesn’t like to keep you from hearing about it.”
The president posted earlier this afternoon that he intended to bar three outlets – Politico, CNN and MS Now – from the White House, alleging that they reported “FICTION and LIES”. He threatened to do the same to other outlets peddling “fake news”.
Ruben Gallego, a Democratic senator from Arizona, called the ban “straight out of the authoritarian playbook”.
Trump doubled down on the ban while addressing reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
“Because they’re fake news”, Trump said, when asked why he wanted to block the outlets’ access. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it’s just fake.”
“There may be others to join them,” Trump added.
Here’s a quick recap of the day’s headlines: Trump vowed to ban several news outlets from the White House. In a Truth Social post, the President said he was barring CNN, Politico, and MS Now (the news outlet formerly known as MSNBC) from the White House. The reason for the ban was not immediately clear.
JD Vance rallied for Republican candidates in Iowa. The vice-president, a key salesman for the Trump administration on the midterm campaign trail, was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, campaigning for the state’s GOP ticket. But he reserved plenty of time for jabs at Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and James Talarico.
Several governors took action on AI and data center regulation. Executive orders in California and Nevada. Public calls for reform in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Across the country, governors – including potential 2028 presidential contenders Josh Shapiro and Gavin Newsom – ended the week with action on the technology, as data center frustrations and fears of runaway AI development loom over the midterms.
The Washington Post reported that the official count of military deaths in the Iran war may be too low. According to several frustrated officials who spoke to the paper, the true number of American servicemembers killed as a result of the escalating conflict with Iran stands at least 22 – not 18, as the Pentagon is publicly reporting.
Kash Patel briefly cut off FBI cooperation with Canadian authorities over a broadcaster’s policy. Outrage over an editorially independent public broadcaster’s language guidelines around 9/11 led to a temporary break in ties between the FBI and its Canadian equivalent, a close international partner, the New York Times reported.
Trump says he has banned CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House In a new post to his personal social media platform, Donald Trump said that he would ban three news outlets – CNN, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Politico – from the White House.
“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,” the US president wrote.
Trump threatened that other media outlets were soon to face the same punishment. What exactly prompted the president to ax those three outlets – beyond familiar allegations that they were “fake news” – was not immediately clear. Nor did he elaborate on which outlets he would consider targeting.
It isn’t the first time Trump has tried to bar a news outlet whose coverage he found unfavorable from the White House. During his first term, he tried to bar CNN journalist Jim Acosta from the building, only for the administration to back down and restore his access after a judge’s ruling.
And at the start of his second term, Trump excluded the Associated Press from certain restricted spaces in the White House in retaliation for the outlet’s refusal to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to his preferred “Gulf of America” in its stylebook.
Officials say Pentagon’s tally of military deaths in Iran war is an undercount, Washington Post reports Currently, the Department of Defense’s official public tally of American service members killed in Iran stands at 18. But new reporting from the Washington Post indicates that the total number of military deaths in the conflict could be higher.
Six officials who spoke to the Post said that at least 22 service members have died in the spiraling conflict with Iran, the outlet reported. The officials the outlet cited said they were frustrated that the Pentagon appeared to be publicly undercounting the war’s true death toll.
The Post reported that the exact identities of the deceased and the circumstances surrounding their deaths was, for the moment, unclear. One official who spoke to the outlet said that not all of the unreported deaths were an immediate result of the fighting with Iran, but have included service members who were in the region as the US and Iran traded pfire.
Report: Trump’s FBI chief halted cooperation with Canadian authorities over broadcaster’s guidelines on 9/11 After news outlets reported in August that Canada’s national public broadcaster had issued internal guidance not to refer to the September 11 attacks as terrorist attacks without outside attribution, Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s FBI director, voiced his outrage on social media.
“Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in US history will no longer have friend in this FBI… Not to mention our heroes that responded in the aftermath 🇺🇸,” Patel tweeted.
Patel, it turned out, made good on his threat. But it wasn’t the broadcaster, CBC – which is editorially independent from the Canadian government – that Patel retaliated against. Rather, Patel responded by cutting off cooperation with the FBI’s counterpart in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted police, the New York Times reported Friday.
The CBC revised its policies soon after they came to public attention, the Times reported, but that didn’t stop the FBI from canceling meetings with the RCMP, and halting parts (but not all) of the cooperation between two law enforcement agencies that typically work closely together.
The unusual move to retaliate against a domestic law enforcement agency over the policies of a public broadcaster came amid escalating US-Canada tensions, and in the shadow of a growing trade war stoked by the US president.
Trump on war in Iran, Houthi advance in Yemen: ‘It’ll all work out’ In a new interview with NewsNation on the war in Iran – where the Donald Trump hopes for a quick toppling of the Iranian regime have dissolved into an ever-escalating regional conflict –the US president said he was still waiting to determine how he would move forward.
“Well, we’re gonna see what happens,” Trump told NewsNation. “Right now, they want to make a deal. And if the deal’s not a correct deal, then I wouldn’t even think about it. But right now, they want to make a deal because they’re losing in every way.”
Since the initial strikes on Iran failed to force the Iranian leadership to capitulate, Trump has increasingly turned to economic measures. After Iran effectively closed the strait of Hormuz, strangling global energy supplies, the Trump administration responded with a counter-blockade. And the administration has installed a new round of secondary sanctions aimed at cutting Iran off from the countries still doing business with it.
Trump also addressed his conversations with the Houthis – the Yemeni faction whose rapid advance on the Red Sea coast threatens shipping through another vital artery of global trade.
“Well, we’re talking to the Houthis also, and they would like to see if we can make a deal,” Trump said.
“It’ll all work out,” he added.
JD Vance is now onstage speaking at a Republican campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the GOP tries to rally voters in a state with a Senate seat and the governor’s office on the line.
Among the candidates JD Vance is in town to stump for: Chris McGowan, candidate for the state’s 4th congressional district, Ashley Hinson, a TV journalist-turned-congresswoman now running for Senate, and Zach Lahn, the GOP nominee to replace Kim Reynolds as Iowa governor.
Vance quickly turned his praise for Land into a jab at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive leader who many suspect may join Vance in a crowded field of presidential contenders in 2028.
“A lot of people who run for governor spend twenty years learning how to say nothing. And some politicians are very good at it — AOC,” he said, uttering Ocasio-Cortez’s name as an aside to the crowd.
He went on to aim attacks at Democratic Senate nominees James Talarico (Texas) and Adam Hamilton (Kansas). Both men have featured their ties to the Christian faith – Talarico has studied at a seminary, and Hamilton is a pastor – and Vance sought to cast their ideas of Christianity as counter to his own.
A federal immigration officer has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of lying to the FBI that he was attacked before shooting a Venezuelan man in the leg in Minneapolis at the height of Donald Trump’s deportation sweeps in January.
Christian Castro, who has been suspended without pay from his job as a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, is the first federal law enforcement officer to be charged by the US Justice Department with wrongdoing in Operation Metro Surge, which saw thousands of armed, masked agents deployed to Minnesota’s cities last winter.
Castro was taken into custody by agents of the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension in Minneapolis on Thursday and was booked into the Hennepin county jail on his outstanding arrest warrant.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will attend Donald Trump’s state dinner for Chinese president Xi Jinping, Reuters has reported.
Trump will host the Chinese leader at the White House next week for their second meeting this year, as the two leaders seek stability in a relationship under pressure over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan and Iran as well as global worries about artificial intelligence.
Dimon joins other top executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who are also planning to attend the meeting, Politico reported earlier.
The meeting comes as concerns about the dangers of AI are at an all time high after insiders at Anthropic voiced fears that the technology they are building could become so advanced and dangerous as to cause human extinction within the decade, and they asserted many of their colleagues feel the same but have not said so publicly.
Majority of Michigan voters dislike Trump’s Canada tariffs, new poll finds Ove 60 percent of prospective voters in Michigan, a border state both heavily dependent on trade with Canada and key to control of Congress in 2026, dislike the Trump administration’s tariffs on the US’s northern neighbor, according to a new poll.
The poll by the The Washington Post and Schar School found that most likely voters it surveyed in Michigan, including a majority of independents, weren’t a fan of the tariffs on Canada. Support largely broke down along party lines, with 89 percent of Democrats against them, but only a slim majority – 56 percent – of Republicans in favor.
Michigan hosts one of this year’s most closely-watched Senates races, between Republican congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican, and his progressive Democrat challenger Abdul El-Sayed. Unlike other Republicans in northern border states, who have spoken out against the escalating US/Canada trade war, Rogers has largely voiced support for Trump’s tariffs.
The latest round of US tariffs against Canada snapped into effect in late August, after negotiations between the two countries broke down in the eleventh hour. Canada retaliated with new tariffs on US goods, disrupting a flow of trade vital to the economies of border states like Michigan.