- “By punishing the AP for refusing to parrot the administration’s worldview, Trump is taking a step down a dangerous road.” – Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is facing renewed backlash after the American Civil Liberties Union released a report detailing the White House’s alleged retaliation against the Associated Press for refusing to adopt the administration’s preferred terminology for the Gulf of Mexico. The ACLU warns the actions place the United States “in dangerous company.”
The report, published early Oct. 7, describes retaliation against the press as a tactic that “belongs to a society much different and more oppressive than our own.”
Late on Oct. 6, the ACLU and the ACLU of the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief supporting the AP in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
According to the ACLU, “the brief supports the AP’s claim that the White House violated the First Amendment when it restricted the AP’s access to official events because the outlet refused to adopt the administration’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico.”
The ACLU argues that unchecked incursions on free expression frequently lead to greater repression, citing both U.S. history and modern examples from abroad. The filing outlines what it describes as an “alarming campaign of retaliation” against dissenting voices.
Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of D.C., said, “Attacking a free press is a key play in the autocracy playbook, as we have seen around the world in recent years.”
He noted that when countries such as Hungary and the Philippines regressed from democracy toward autocracy, punishment of journalists critical of the ruling party often signaled more serious repression to come.
“By punishing the AP for refusing to parrot the administration’s worldview, Trump is taking a step down a dangerous road,” Michelman added. “The First Amendment exists to block any incursion against press freedom, and we are asking the court to heed the lessons of our own history and of world history by enforcing the First Amendment here.”
In January, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” When the AP refused to use the new term, the White House barred its reporters from joining the press pool in the Oval Office or traveling aboard Air Force One.
The AP filed suit in February, and a federal judge reinstated its access in April. Part of that decision was temporarily stayed by a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said Trump cannot punish the AP for its word choice. “The White House press pool guarantees the public’s timely access to important information about the president and the executive branch,” Hauss said. “If the president can banish any media outlet that refuses to parrot the administration’s talking points, the American public will hear exclusively from sycophants and stenographers.”
The ACLU noted that the White House press pool is historically managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association and that presidents in recent history have not had the authority to remove outlets based on coverage content.
The lawsuit, Associated Press v. Budowich, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the ACLU and ACLU of D.C. submitted their amicus brief on Oct. 6, 2025.
The Associated Press v. Budowich amicus brief has been released.
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