CNN Barred from Air Force One in Trump Press Clash
The White House excluded CNN from the Air Force One press pool for President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, replacing the network with conservative outlets and escalating an already extraordinary confrontation over media access with the administration.
CNN was left off White House travel guidance for Trump’s Sept. 26 journey to attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas, according to NPR, citing The Associated Press. The network’s seat was given to Real America’s Voice News, a conservative outlet, with LindellTV — founded by Trump ally Mike Lindell — also listed on the schedule.
A Pool Seat Long Reserved for CNN
The decision carries unusual significance because the Air Force One seat assigned to CNN had long been reserved for a member of the U.S. network video pool, a rotating group of five major broadcasters — CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC — that take turns recording and sharing footage of the president. Neither Real America’s Voice News nor LindellTV is part of that pool.
According to Al Jazeera, the move marks the latest media restriction by the White House and comes amid escalating tensions between Trump and the U.S. press. The shift threatens to unravel a fragile truce: just one day earlier, the network video pool had returned to operation for the first time since the administration banned three outlets from White House grounds.
A Truce Dissolves
The standoff traces back to Sept. 18, when Trump abruptly announced that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would be barred from the White House — a move that reports said followed an aide showing him videos of unflattering coverage. Journalists were subsequently stopped from entering the grounds, and some were asked to surrender their badges.
The three outlets sued on Sept. 21, arguing that the ban violated both the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit stated, as reported by The Independent.
The Justice Department argued that access to the White House is “a privilege — not a right,” contending that Trump could restrict the outlets on national security grounds. On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the ban, finding that the government offered no evidence that the outlets’ reporting had damaged national security.
“Defendants offer no declarations or other support — classified or unclassified — explaining how any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged the national security,” Kelly wrote, according to Al Jazeera. Journalists regained access by midday Thursday.
But the reprieve proved short-lived. That same afternoon, CNN’s editorial team and an MS NOW reporter were blocked from covering a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Kelly’s ruling had addressed “hard passes” to White House grounds and said nothing directly about pool duties or Air Force One — a gap the administration now appears to be testing.
Trump Escalates Rhetoric
Trump made his position clear in a pair of early-morning Truth Social posts on Saturday. “Why should perpetrators of FAKE NEWS, like CNN and MSDNC, be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House?” he wrote, according to The Guardian. “Despite my big Election Win, almost 100% of ‘TRUMP’ coverage is negative, and has been for years!”
Less than two hours later, he intensified the attack: “FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! IT HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG, AT A TREMENDOUS COST TO OUR COUNTRY.”
Speaking to reporters before departing the White House, Trump cast the ban as a defense of quality journalism. “I love an open free press. What I don’t like is fake news, and they’re fake news 100 percent,” he said, according to USA TODAY. “In two years I doubt they did one good story.”
A Recurring Pattern
The confrontation fits a broader pattern in Trump’s second term, in which he has increasingly targeted outlets whose coverage irritates him. The Guardian noted that his Truth Social post came days after a Reuters/Ipsos poll put his overall approval rating at 32%, an all-time low.
Earlier in his presidency, Trump curtailed The Associated Press’s access to certain presidential spaces after the outlet continued using “Gulf of Mexico” despite his rebranding it the “Gulf of America” — a case now on appeal after a federal judge ruled in the AP’s favor. And in 2018, during his first term, he revoked CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass following a contentious news conference.
The press pool itself dates back decades and was created by the White House Correspondents’ Association to ensure a rotating roster always travels with the president and distributes reports to the broader press corps. Since 2025, however, the White House has taken over deciding which outlets cover the president through the pool each day — a task previously coordinated by the association.
Why It Matters
The dispute sits at the intersection of press freedom and executive authority. Kelly’s ruling left unresolved whether the administration’s control over pool assignments is itself subject to constitutional limits — a question CNN’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., signaled the plaintiffs intend to press. Earlier Friday, Boutrous said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that the outlets believe the court’s ruling also covers pool access, according to NPR.
The White House television pool has warned that the stakes extend beyond any single outlet. In a joint statement Monday, it said: “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.”
What’s Next
The immediate question is whether CNN’s exclusion from Air Force One will prompt renewed legal action or a fresh withdrawal by the other four pool broadcasters, who previously declined to participate in a show of solidarity. The White House deferred comment on the decision, and it remains unclear how broadly the administration intends to apply its pool authority.
With Kelly’s temporary order set to expire and the underlying lawsuit ongoing, the fight over who may report from the president’s side — on the ground, in the air, and in the briefing room — appears far from settled.