White House removes CNN from press pool for Trump’s upcoming trip to Texas and Oklahoma

The White House on Wednesday removed CNN from the media pool that was scheduled to cover a trip by President Donald Trump on Thursday, escalating a feud with the cable network after a federal judge blocked the administration’s efforts to restrict media access.

CNN had been designated to travel with Trump on Thursday, according to a press rotation document released Sunday by the White House. But when daily guidelines were released regarding his planned visit to a truck manufacturing plant in Denton, Texas, followed by remarks in Durant, Oklahoma, they did not list CNN as providing bundled coverage.

The move comes less than a week after a federal judge halted Trump’s efforts to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. It also comes after the White House banned CNN from flying on Air Force One over the weekend when Trump visited Tennessee, when the network was expected to provide bundled coverage. (The judge’s order was limited to media access on the White House grounds.)

Emily Kuhn, a CNN spokeswoman, confirmed the cable network’s withdrawal of planned coverage of the pool, but provided no additional comment. Instead, she pointed to an earlier statement from Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer representing CNN, MS NOW and Politico in their fight with the White House over press access, calling the ban “a blatant violation of the First Amendment and due process.”

In a statement released Thursday, Boutrous said that “the White House continues to unpredictably and inconsistently implement the President’s unconstitutional ban on press freedoms by prohibiting CNN from fulfilling its role as a designated television network pooler – to the detriment of CNN, its fellow members and, ultimately, the American public.” »

The three media outlets he represents asked a federal judge Monday to extend his pause on the Trump ban.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on CNN’s exclusion from Thursday’s trip.

The White House Press Pool is a group of media outlets that share video, editorial information and costs of covering senior officials and events involving the president around the world. Under this system, “poolers” designated each day represent the entire press to document newsworthy events and serve as an intermediary between the president and the public.

The White House Correspondents’ Association, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a group of 49 news and media organizations, including NBCUniversal Media, the parent company of NBC News, filed a legal brief last week in support of CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

Other pool member networks – Fox News, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News – briefly boycotted their participation in pool duties last week in solidarity with CNN.

NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on CNN’s exclusion from Thursday’s trip and whether it intended to take action.

Trump has already restricted access to other media outlets. In 2025, he banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and certain events for failing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America — his preferred name for the gulf.

The AP filed a lawsuit and the case continues.