CNN
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A federal appeals court will allow the White House to exclude the Associated Press from access to the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and Air Force One if it chooses, according to a new court order in the ongoing legal battle over press access.
The decision hangs on a court finding that some White House spaces are not open to the broader public or large groups of press, and so the White House can choose which journalists it chooses to admit.
A lower court judge previously blocked the administration from excluding the Associated Press.
The appeals court’s decision is a further blow to the AP’s attempts to preserve long-standing norms governing press access and the free flow of information from the White House.
It’s a victory for President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social about the “big WIN over AP today,” and his press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who posted on X, “As we’ve said all along, the Associated Press is not guaranteed special access” to spaces like the Oval Office.
A spokesperson for the AP, one of the biggest news outlets in the world, said, “We are disappointed in the court’s decision and are reviewing our options.” The AP has previously argued that punitive restrictions on White House correspondents are unconstitutional.
The Trump administration has welcomed the fight. Earlier this year, it asserted control over the process of choosing which news outlets are in the daily press “pool” with Trump.
Having a “pool” rotation is critical because many presidential events, like Oval Office photo ops and Air Force One Q&A’s, take place in small group settings.
The makeup of the “pool” was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent group that represents the press corps.
Trump’s press operation took over the responsibility and made room for newer media outlets, with an emphasis on conservative and explicitly pro-Trump entities, while markedly reducing access for the AP.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
The dispute erupted in February when Trump officials objected to the AP stylebook’s listing for the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump had decreed would be renamed the Gulf of America.
The change took effect at US government agencies. But other countries do not recognize the new name, and the AP has customers around the world, so it still refers to the Gulf of Mexico while also acknowledging Trump’s executive order.
The Trump White House claimed that coverage decision was “divisive” and “dishonest” and banned newswire reporters from events, triggering a First Amendment legal battle.
The AP said the White House ban was a form of viewpoint discrimination and would have chilling effects for the news industry as a whole.
After a judge sided with the wire service in April, Trump removed the traditional wire position in the daily “pool” rotation altogether, a change designed to withstand legal scrutiny while still disadvantaging the AP.
Refuting the allegation of “viewpoint discrimination,” the White House said “outlets will be eligible for participation in the Pool, irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.”
The upshot: The AP still gets some chances to question the president, but not as frequently as before, and with the knowledge that the Trump White House ultimately has control over the process.
The appeals court, in a split 2-1 decision Friday, signaled that some actions against The AP can be permitted. The decision could bring about more appeals over the White House press corps and its access around the president.
“These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,” DC Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote. “No one suggests the Oval Office is a traditional public forum such as a park or sidewalk held in trust for expressive activity.”
Friday’s ruling didn’t extend to the White House’s larger East Room space, where presidential press conferences sometimes take place. The AP was also excluded from those last winter, though the White House loosened up in the spring.
On Friday evening Trump signaled that, for him, the entire case was about his power to rename a body of water. He wrote that the AP “refused to state the facts or the Truth on the GULF OF AMERICA.”
The AP, however, continues to follow its stylebook guidance, regardless of the access it receives at the White House on any given day.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.
