The Great White House Press Pool Replacement
CNN, MS NOW and Politico all are out - Border Hawk News is still in.
Yesterday morning I posted a story about the changing face and politics of the White House press pool. In it I discussed the right wing anti-immigration site Border Hawk News that is an adherent to the Great White Replacement conspiracy theory. That’s a racist and anti-semitic conspiracy that to put it simply claims that Jews or elites are bringing in non-white people into the country to “replace” white Americans. It’s the basis of a lot of anti-immigration groups beliefs and has a long sordid history.
Zach D Roberts
Yesterday at 3pm Trump announced on his social media site Truth Social that he would be “banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record…)”
All day Friday those outlets were allowed to continue to report from the White House grounds as usual but when the journalists arrived Saturday morning they were blocked. One of MS NOW’s reporters and cameraman said that their “press badges were confiscated by U.S. Secret Service at a security gate outside the West Wing.”
CNN’s Betsy Klein’s credentials were taken and she was not allowed on the premises, same for a Politico reporter.
All of this seems to come as a surprise from staffers according to Politico’s anonymous sources inside the White House. Politico noted that Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff is out of town.
This of course isn’t the first time even in this term that Trump has banned large news outlets from White House coverage. In February 2025 the Associated Press was blocked from accessing the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other “limited spaces” (even if you have a WH press credential, you don’t get into every WH event. There are a LOT of people with WH creds so it would physically impossible for them to all access, say the Oval at the same time… hence The Pool.)
The AP was blocked as they refused (correctly) to use Gulf of America to describe the Gulf of Mexico. After nearly two months a federal judge ruled that Trump’s White House must give the AP access.
If you add into this equation the new fences around the White House and Lafayette Park, a traditional place for protest, and now blocking out large media networks that Trump perceives as being opposed to him… well. It’s worrying. But everything is worrying right now.
Cheers.
