2 days Ago By Ted Johnson
An Associated Press print reporter is expected to have a spot in the White House pool by Sunday, following a court order to end Donald Trump ‘s ban on the wire service for failing to conform to his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico , an administration official said in a court filing today. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich argued that the administration has been complying with Judge Trevor McFadden’s order that they could not prohibit the AP based on their content. McFadden concluded that the ban, put in place in February, violated the First Amendment.
An AP photographer was admitted to the pool today. Watch on Deadline Related Stories C4 Announces Trump's First 100 Days Doc; Disney+ Sets K-Drama 'Nine Puzzles' Release; Creativity Capital & Milk VFX/Lola Unveil Hires - Global Briefs FCC Chairman Goes After Comcast For "News Distortion" After White House Complains That MSNBC Didn't Carry Press Briefing On Deportations McFadden has set a hearing for Friday after the AP contended that the White House was not complying with his order. The AP cited a White House new policy that declares “in clear violation of the Court’s Injunction Order, that ‘[t]he President retains absolute discretion over access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other comparably sensitive spaces.
'” Since the AP challenged the ban in court, the Trump White House has taken control of the press pool, after decades in which the White House Correspondents’ Association determined who would be part of the dozen or so journalists’ group with access to more intimate settings with the president, including the Oval Office. The AP previously was a permanent member of the pool in one of the spots designated for wire service reporters. After McFadden issued his ruling earlier this month, the White House changed the makeup of the pool, eliminating designated spots for wire services and instead making those reporters part of the regular rotation for print reporters.
In a filing today, the Justice Department’s attorneys wrote that the AP had to wait its turn in the rotation. They wrote that “this does not mean that the Associated Press was immediately placed in every daily press pool and granted access to every media event at the White House starting on April 14, 2025.” The AP’s legal team, led by Charles Tobin, wrote, “The new policy abandons the longstanding role of wire services, which have been included in the pool since its inception to assure that White House reporting reaches the broadest possible audience in the United States and around the globe as quickly and reliably as possible.
This change marks the latest reduction in wire service participation, which the White House continues to use as a pretext for targeting the AP: from three non-rotating wire spots (AP, Bloomberg, and Reuters) before the White House barred the AP on February 11, to two wire spots between February 11 and 25 (Bloomberg and Reuters), to one or two wire spots until April 16 (Bloomberg and/or Reuters), to zero dedicated wire spots now.” The AP was banned from Oval Office and other events after it declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in its style guidance. Trump signed an executive order on Jan.
20 doing so, but the AP noted that other countries did not recognize the name change for the international body of water. The AP said that it would still acknowledge’s Trump’s executive order, though. Earlier today, a three-judge panel of the D.
C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether to grant the White House’s emergency motion to sideline McFadden’s ruling in favor of the AP. The judges have yet to issue a decision, but Budowich noted the appeal in his court declaration.
Should the appellate court grant an emergency stay, the AP’s access could be cut off again..
