Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event
[April 15, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated
Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with
President Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib
Bukele.
Last week's federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration
from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico was to
take effect Monday. The administration is appealing the decision and
arguing with the news outlet over whether it needs to change anything
until those appeals are exhausted.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit set a Thursday hearing on
Trump's request that any changes be delayed while case is reviewed. The
AP is fighting for more access as soon as possible.
Later Monday, two AP photographers were admitted to an event honoring
Ohio State's championship football team on the more spacious South Lawn.
A text reporter was turned away.
Since mid-February, AP reporters and photographers have been blocked
from attending events in the Oval Office, where President Donald Trump
frequently addresses journalists, and on Air Force One. The AP has seen
sporadic access elsewhere, and regularly covers White House press
secretary Karoline Leavitt’s briefings. Leavitt is one of three
administration officials named in the AP's lawsuit.
The dispute stems from AP’s decision not to follow the president’s
executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico, although AP style does
cite Trump’s wish that it be called the Gulf of America. The AP argued –
and U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden agreed last week – that the
government cannot punish the news organization for exercising its right
to free speech.
[to top of second column]
|
McFadden on Friday had rejected Trump’s request for more delay in
implementing the ruling; now the president is asking an appeals
court for the same thing.
“We expect the White House to restore AP's participation in the
(White House press) pool as of today, as provided in the injunction
order,” AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said Monday.
The extent of AP's future access remains uncertain, even with the
court decision.
Until being blocked by Trump, AP has traditionally always had a
reporter and photographer among the small group of journalists
invited into the Oval Office. McFadden did not order that to be
restored, only that no news organization should be shut out because
the president objects to its news decisions — under a principle
called “viewpoint discrimination.”
“No other news organization in the United States receives the level
of guaranteed access previously bestowed upon the AP,” the
administration argued in court papers over the weekend. “The AP may
have grown accustomed to its favored status, but the Constitution
does not require that such status endure in perpetuity.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
