The three ‘news’ outlets who were told a few days ago not to let the door to the White House hit them on the way out are hitting back.
That comes after President Trump mercilessly revoked their access to the White House.
CNN, MSNOW, and Politico are now joining forces, bringing an First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump Administration.
I want to zoom in first on one key aspect built into this morning’s court filing — a motion requesting an emergency restraining order,
which could immediately reverse the President’s ban, if granted.
Ironically, let’s go to CNN’s own chief media analyst, Brian Stelter himself, talking about that aspect of the lawsuit this morning:
Quoting from the motion for a temporary restraining order: "Since Plaintiffs' White House access was suddenly terminated on September 18, they have been suffering serious irreparable harm…"
pic.twitter.com/kgsmmiZrs8
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter)
September 21, 2026
Here’s a full screen version of that clip for convenience:
Quoting from the motion for a temporary restraining order: “Since Plaintiffs’ White House access was suddenly terminated on September 18, they have been suffering serious irreparable harm…”
pic.twitter.com/kgsmmiZrs8
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter)
September 21, 2026
That tells us the plan by the three outlets isn’t to just slog it out in the courts for weeks or months.
If they can get it, they are going for a quick court-ordered return to their previous White House access.
No doubt, they want the chance to rub that in the President’s face.
As Stelter pointed out, the media outlets didn’t waste any time, filing their challenge to the President’s ban on First Amendment grounds early this morning, according to this from the
New York Post:
CNN, MS NOW and Politico will sue the Trump administration Monday to restore their White House access after reporters for all three outlets were turned away from the property over the weekend.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a joint statement.
President Trump announced Friday afternoon that all three outlets were barred “effective immediately” for allegedly reporting “Fake News.”
During a subsequent Oval Office event, the president claimed his edict was the result of “cumulative stories over the last two years” rather than any single story, adding: “You get sick of it.”
“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” Trump added. “I would say the ban would go as far as you can, and if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.” (Emphasis added.)
For their part, CNN has pulled in legal help from the lawyer who helped former CNN anchor Jim Acosta.
Though Acosta was eventually fired from CNN, he did regain his White House credentials following a confrontation with President Trump back in 2018 before he was subsequently let go.
Here’s what
CNN had to say about today’s First Amendment suit:
The emergency request is set to go before a federal judge in the DC District Court and could result in hearings and legal arguments from the administration as soon as this week.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the outlets said in a draft of their lawsuit, which is asking the court to act immediately to revive their journalists’ access to the White House.
The lawsuit will allege Trump’s ban violates the First Amendment and the Constitution’s due process protections.
The First Amendment attorney who represented CNN in court during the Acosta case in 2018, Ted Boutrous, has been brought on board by CNN, MS NOW and Politico for Monday’s lawsuit. (Emphasis added.)
As for MSNOW, their storyline emphasizes the argument that President Trump singled out these ‘news’ organizations because of their ‘negative’ reporting.
That might be an attempt to sidestep what President Trump really drilled down on when he banned them several days ago, which was the ‘fake news’ the President charged them with.
The funny thing is… MSNOW even quoted what the President REALLY said — contradicting themselves — in their own story!
Check out that
MSNOW’s writeup:
The news outlets on Monday are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to immediately block the ban and restore both press credentials and access to the affected journalists.
“The President banned CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, and the individual reporters covering the news for those media organizations, in disregard of the most basic guarantees of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause,” the lawsuit says. “He did so expressly for the improper purpose of retaliating against Plaintiffs for past news coverage because he deemed it ‘negative’ and chilling future reporting about him and his administration’s policies and actions.”
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” the organizations added.
Trump was asked by reporters Friday whether the ban could survive a potential legal challenge. “I don’t think a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” the president responded. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time.” (Emphasis added.)
There’s a big difference between ‘negative’ stories and ‘FALSE STORIES’.
But then again, isn’t that just like the ‘fake news’ media? (
Didn’t they just make President Trump’s point for him!?)
Jumping on the bandwagon, old Nancy Pelosi had to weigh in with the same blanket generalities the Left likes to spout at times like this; no details to get in the way of their need for PURE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.
She came out arguing that President’s can restrict the ‘free press’ just because he disagrees with their coverage:
Freedom of the press is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment—not granted at the pleasure of the President.
The free press represents the people, and Trump doesn’t get to decide that they can’t cover his presidency because he doesn’t approve of their reporting.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi)
September 19, 2026
The wild thing is, generally speaking, I agree!
I think even President Trump agrees on that point.
But as Benny Johnson pointed out in a post this morning on X, these outlets love to deny the President airtime anyway:
CNN, Politico, and MSNOW have announced they’re suing the Trump White House
They’re filing a joint federal lawsuit this morning and asking a D.C. judge for a temporary restraining order to put them back on White House grounds.
Whenever Trump speaks live, these networks talk…
pic.twitter.com/Btwe089dG8
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson)
September 21, 2026
Here’s the text of Johnson’s argument for easier reading:
CNN, Politico, and MSNOW have announced they’re suing the Trump White House
They’re filing a joint federal lawsuit this morning and asking a D.C. judge for a temporary restraining order to put them back on White House grounds.
Whenever Trump speaks live, these networks talk over him anyway, they can do this from the street corner.
Covering the White House is a privilege.(Emphasis added.)
President Trump’s head of CMS was put on the spot by a reporter on the White House lawn following the ban, prior to today’s court filing.
The News Nation correspondent wanted to know whether Dr. Oz agreed with the ban — and he gave what may be the perfect answer:
Moments after today’s Oval Office event with President Trump, I asked CMS Administrator Dr. Oz whether he believes banning media outlets from the White House is a violation of the First Amendment.
@NewsNation pic.twitter.com/YwHTDVBBP9
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_)
September 18, 2026
Here’s a full screen version of that clip for convenience:
Moments after today’s Oval Office event with President Trump, I asked CMS Administrator Dr. Oz whether he believes banning media outlets from the White House is a violation of the First Amendment.
@NewsNation pic.twitter.com/YwHTDVBBP9
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_)
September 18, 2026
After all, what’s the difference between Biden HIDING from the press for YEARS…
Compared with President Trump who tends to give the press time at every chance on the daily?
For their part, Politico attempted to focus their statement on legal precedent.
Their story included a reference to a court case back nearly 50 years ago in which a journalist eventually won a battle over White House access.
Not to be left out, here’s
Politico’s take on the ‘Emergency’ First Amendment lawsuit:
The news organizations, represented by Theodore Boutrous Jr. of law firm Gibson Dunn, are filing suit against Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean Curran. The news outlets argue that the president’s ban violates the Constitution in multiple ways: The abrupt cancellation of White House access without notice violated the organizations’ Fifth Amendment due process and property rights, and the retaliation for the content of their reporting violated their First Amendment rights.
The suit contends that the ban is already “severely impeding” the news organizations’ ability to report on the Trump White House while also causing a chilling effect among other news outlets, who could find themselves similarly locked out if the president deems their coverage “insufficiently favorable.”
The D.C. Circuit ruled almost a half-century ago in a case involving Nation magazine reporter Robert Sherrill that journalists can’t be denied access to the White House arbitrarily or based on the content of their reporting. (Emphasis added.)
If you noticed the section I emphasized in bold, Politico highlighted the specific Trump officials named in this joint lawsuit.
- President Trump
- White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
- White House Communications Director Steven Cheung
- Secret Service Director Sean Curran
And finally, President Trump issued his text-based response (
but, oh — this wouldn’t be his final word!) to the lawsuit early this morning:
Here’s the full text of the President’s Truth Social post emphasizing his distinction between the ‘Free Press’ and the ‘FAKE NEWS’:
The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
There’s a lot that could be unpacked in what he said.
The corrupt and FULLY COORDINATED nature of the ‘fake news’ beast definitely supports his argument that this is a potential “National Security” issue.
But of course, you may have guessed from my main headline image, he had a slightly more condescending response aimed directly at those three outlets:
The funny detail is that the President initially shared that image on Truth Social at 11:22 AM Sunday morning.
The lawsuit didn’t happen until today — Monday.
And President Trump shared it AGAIN, in direct response to the lawsuit brought by CNN, MSNBC, and Politico.
Time will tell how the legal proceedings play out.
Those DC judges tend to favor those who oppose President Trump, to begin with.
But in terms of public humiliation… it appears that the message from the President in response is that he’s not backing down easily.
It is my assertion that President Trump is getting some much-deserved retribution upon those who have systematically hurt the United States and the American people with their lies, deceitful coverage, and complicity in covering for those who have intentionally HURT this nation.
As for the legal results of this litigation, we’ll bring you that as it happens.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
