White House Correspondents' 'AP Ban Dispute Expands' Reporters' Pro-Trump Conservative Media Joins
The White House Correspondents' Committee (WHCA) requested the White House to withdraw the 'AP access ban', calling it an 'escalation of the dispute', and conservative media outlets such as the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press and Fox News joined in, and AP filed a lawsuit.
The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on the 17th, and the White House Correspondents' Association also signed with 40 major media outlets on the same day.
The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press letter officially requested that "AP's access to the reporter pool, a rotating group of reporters who travel with the president every day, be restored." The White House press corps letter said the decision to ban the AP was an “escalation of a conflict that does not serve the presidency or the American people.” The letter continued, “The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions,” and “any attempt to punish journalists for such decisions would be a serious violation of these constitutional protections.” The White House said the reporters were being blocked because the article mentioned the Gulf of Mexico, not the “United States,” as President Trump declared in his Jan. 20 executive order.
In a post to X on Jan. 14, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowicz said the Trump administration would indefinitely ban AP journalists from entering the country and would not allow them access to spaces such as the Oval Office or Air Force One.
He continued, “While their right to report irresponsibly and dishonestly is protected by the First Amendment, it does not guarantee them the privilege of free access to restricted spaces.” In a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Club, dozens of major news organizations, including the New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and conservative Fox News and Newsmax, signed on and urged the Trump administration to immediately lift the ban on the Associated Press, which was barred from attending several official press events last week.
“While we can understand President Trump’s frustration, as the press has often been unfair to him, Newsmax still supports the AP’s right as a private organization to use whatever language it wants to report,” a Newsmax spokesperson said in a statement, adding, “We fear that a future administration will not like what Newsmax has written and will seek to ban us.”
The letter from the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) was first reported by the news newsletter Status and was signed by mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, NBC, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as conservative outlets such as Fox and Newsmax. The White House Correspondents’ letter was obtained by a media outlet and reported on the 19th, revealing the list of signatories.
Media newsletter Status reported that “CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Axios, Semaphore, the Washington Post, TIME, Punchbowl, and the Guardian signed the letter,” adding that “pro-Trump channels Fox News and Newsmax were among many others.”
“Media outlets across the political spectrum signed a letter backed by the WHCA, a copy of which Status obtained,” the outlet reported, adding that “this level of solidarity is rare,” a source familiar with the effort said. The State of the Union said in a statement that “while many news organizations that cover the White House have a variety of editorial styles, they all share the same collective interest in ensuring that no one is excluded by their constitutionally protected choice.”
The AP said in a Jan. 23 notice that it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico “in recognition of Trump’s new name choice” because the ocean basin has had that name for more than 400 years and Trump’s executive order did not grant authority outside the United States.
Most U.S. news organizations continued to use “Gulf of Mexico,” but reporters were not blocked from entering or accessing the White House.
The pro-Trump Axios, which followed suit, told X on the 15th that “our readers are largely based in the United States, compared to other publishers with international audiences,” and that “we will use only the United States when reporting,” and that “the Associated Press and all news organizations should be free to report as they see fit.” Here’s the full Axios statement:
<Axios’ top priority is to provide readers with fact-based, clinical reporting.
It’s standard practice to use “Gulf of America” (formerly Gulf of Mexico, now US) when reporting, because our target audience is largely US-based, compared to other publishers with international audiences.
At the same time, the government should not dictate how news organizations make editorial decisions. The AP and all news organizations should be free to report as they see fit. This is the bedrock of a free press and a sustainable democracy.
“The AP has covered the White House for over 100 years,” said Lauren Easton, an AP spokeswoman. “This is about the government telling the public and the press what words to use, and retaliating when they don’t follow government orders.”
Julie Pace, AP’s editor-in-chief, said the organization “stands ready to vigorously defend constitutional rights.” On the 21st, Associated Press reporters filed a lawsuit in the Washington District Court, suing three officials of the US President Donald Trump administration for violating their freedom of expression by restricting their reporting, and asking the court to stop the restriction.
In the lawsuit, AP stated, “The White House’s actions surrounding our labeling of the Gulf of Mexico as the United States and not following Trump’s executive order violate the Constitution by restricting freedom of expression,” and “The press and all Americans have the right to choose their own words and not be subject to government retaliation.”
The lawsuit named three people as opponents: White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowicz, and Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. AP went on to emphasize, “Attacks on AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report news violate the core of the First Amendment,” and “The court must immediately correct this.” President Trump has directly addressed the AP’s decision to maintain the Gulf of Mexico designation several times, and said on the 18th that his team has stated that the AP will not comply with the president’s order to change the name, and that “until they agree to the United States of America, we will exclude them.”
In a Fox Radio interview on the 21st, President Trump called the AP “radical leftist fanatics” and “a first-class name, but third-class,” and said of the name change, “everyone else” is “the only one who is upset,” while “AP is the only one who is upset.”
See <White House Confronts Press Corps Over Refusal to Change Name to Gulf of Mexico, Blocking AP Reporters, ‘Unconstitutional’, February 14, 2025>