By Ashley Murray, States Newsroom
WASHINGTON — A federal judge denied The Associated Press an immediate temporary order that would have restored access to cover certain White House events and travel with the president, after the Trump administration banned the agency for refusing to adhere to the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden for the District of Columbia instead granted an expedited schedule for a preliminary injunction hearing in March, citing the need for more information from the wire service and the administration.
The court “is not inclined to act precipitously on the executive office” with respect to restricted areas in the White House, McFadden said Monday at an emergency hearing requested by the AP. McFadden was appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term in 2017 and confirmed by the Senate in an 84-10 vote.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Friday, the AP sued three White House officials, including Trump Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, for violating the First Amendment by attempting to control the nonprofit news outlet’s speech.
The suit also alleged the administration denied the agency due process under the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment for failing to issue any prior guidance regarding press access or an avenue for the AP to challenge a new rule.
Trump administration officials began barring the AP’s journalists on Feb. 11 from certain press events at the White House after the global news organization announced style guidance advising reporters to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico by that name. The AP at the same time acknowledged that Trump issued an executive order to rename it the “Gulf of America.”
AP access was curtailed to events covered by a regular group of outlets and rotating reporters — otherwise called the “press pool” — in the Oval Office, East Room and other areas.
Depending on the size of the room, events may be open to the wider press corps. The AP still retains credentials to cover the White House daily briefings.
Attorney Charles D. Tobin argued in federal court Monday that the AP is “the eyes and ears of the public for 4 billion people” around the world. He added that as he was readying for the hearing, his client was denied access to cover a White House joint press conference between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Tobin also informed the judge that the AP had been denied access to a spot in Trump’s motorcade and to an event last week at the National Building Museum where the president met with the National Governors Association.
The ban is for “quintessentially content based” reasons and is “completely arbitrary because they’re not banning other reporters,” Tobin argued.
But Brian Hudak, chief of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, told McFadden that the president can “decide who gets to have special access to him.”
“Once you realize the president can make content-based decisions, then you don’t have a case,” Hudak said, giving the hypothetical that Trump could handpick reporters to invite into the Oval Office.
McFadden pushed back, noting the difference between events that are open to other reporters versus an invitation for an exclusive sit-down interview.
Hudak added later in the back-and-forth with McFadden that if the Trump administration wanted to ban reporters altogether, “I think they can do that.”
McFadden said he needs more information and set a March 3 deadline for a new court filing from the AP, and a March 11 deadline for an opposition brief from the Trump administration. A preliminary injunction hearing is set for March 20.
The Trump administration issued a statement following McFadden’s denial of a temporary restraining order.
“As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right. We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press. This is the most transparent Administration in history,” according to the statement, which was not attributed to a specific official.
Among the plaintiffs named in the suit is White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In its Feb. 21 complaint over use of the term Gulf of Mexico, the AP accused the White House of coercing it “to use certain words in its coverage or else face an indefinite denial of access.”
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” according to the complaint. “The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”
While the U.S. has territorial rights to nearby portions of the Gulf of Mexico, no one country owns it. The large body of water also borders Mexico and Cuba.
In its standards for journalists, the AP directed that “[a]s a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”
News organizations across the United States follow the AP Stylebook and its ethical standards for reporting, social media posting, editing and photo editing.
On Feb. 14, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, also named in the lawsuit, accused the AP of having a “commitment to misinformation” and publicized via social media that the AP’s reporters and photographers would be banned “going forward” from “limited spaces,” including the Oval Office and Air Force One.
Other credentialed media outlets have continued to be permitted to cover open press events throughout the White House and travel with the president.
Trump told reporters on Feb. 18, “We’re going to keep them out until such time that they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”
The AP highlights in its filing that the agency has been a part of the presidential press pool since 1881, when it provided public updates from outside President James Garfield’s White House “sick room” after he was shot.
Additionally, AP journalists were in the motorcade in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, “providing the nation with contemporaneous, fact-based reporting as the story developed, and as conspiracy theories spread.”
And, AP journalists were traveling with President George W. Bush when he learned of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to the filing.
The White House Correspondents’ Association filed a brief in support of the AP. The WHCA is an independent, self-organized association that has roughly 800 members representing approximately 300 news outlets, according to the brief.
“The WHCA’s members hold a variety of editorial viewpoints and perspectives, but the WHCA is united in its shared belief that an independent news media is vital to the health of the republic. When government officials interfere with or otherwise punish those viewpoints by restricting the press from performing its newsgathering activities, they infringe on the First Amendment rights of the people and the press, and jeopardize our democratic form of government,” the brief stated.
“But the harms go beyond any one excluded news organization, as such conduct will chill and distort news coverage of the President to the public’s detriment.”
At any one time, the presidential press pool consists of three wire reporters from the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg, four photographers from the AP, Reuters, AFP and The New York Times, three network television reporters, a radio correspondent and at least one print reporter. The WHCA organizes a rotation each month.
Editor’s note: Members of States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau staff belong to the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Last updated 5:11 p.m., Feb. 24, 2025
