WASHINGTON, DC – Major news outlets, including CNN, Fox News, and the Washington Post, urged the Trump administration in February to lift the ban placed on The Associated Press, which prohibited the organization from attending official press events, reported the New York Times.
The White House claimed this block on AP—the largest wire service in the world—was put in place because AP is using “Gulf of Mexico” in stories, rather than the “Gulf of America,” which goes against the executive order that Trump decreed on Jan. 20, 2025.
In a letter coordinated by the White House Correspondents’ Association and signed by 40 news outlets, it is said that the decision to bar the AP was “an escalation of a dispute that does not serve the presidency or the public,” reported the NY Times.
This letter also stated “the First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions,” and “any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this constitutional protection,” wrote the NY Times.
A Newsmax spokesman said in a statement that “we fear a future administration may not like something Newsmax writes and seek to ban us,” according to the NY Times.
In a separate letter released by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, it was noted that “the many news organizations reporting on the White House have varied editorial approaches, but all have the same collective interest in ensuring that no one is excluded based on their constitutionally protected choices,” reported the NY Times.
The AP stated it would continue to use the Gulf of Mexico terminology, “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen” because the oceanic basin had carried that name for more than 400 years and Trump’s executive order did not carry authority outside the U.S., wrote the NY Times.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said the Trump administration would “indefinitely bar A.P. journalists and not give them access to spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One,” and that “while their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited space.”
Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for AP, stated “this is about the government telling the public and press what words to use and retaliating if they do not follow government orders,” reported the NY Times.
The AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, said the outlet was prepared to “vigorously defend its constitutional rights,” wrote the NY Times.
(Editor’s note: Update, as of the end of February, the Trump administration banned at least one more major media outlet—HuffPost—from pool reporting).
