The Associated Press has issued legal proceedings against the Donald Trump Administration. This action was taken after the White House banned Associated Press reporters from attending press events.
What’s the Associated Press?
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit news agency. As a news agency, the AP sells reports and stories to newspapers and magazines as well as television and radio broadcasters around the world. The AP was founded in 1846 and now has 235 news bureaus in 94 countries around the world.
It’s also one of the most highly regarded and prestigious news agencies, having won 59 Pulitzer Prizes. The AP’s journalism reaches four billion people around the world every day.
Why has the White House banned it?
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. However, the Executive Order only applies to the name used by the U.S. federal government. It doesn’t have any impact outside the U.S. and the rest of the world still uses the Gulf of Mexico name. As a result, the AP made an editorial decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.” This is because the AP shares its news stories around the world and needs to use place names that are recognizable to all audiences. In response, on February 11, 202, the White House began banning AP journalists from events open to the press pool.
What does the ban cover?
On February 14, 2025, the White House made its ban on the AP indefinite. This was announced via the White House account on X (formerly Twitter).
As a result, the AP’s reporters and photographers are banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One. They’re also barred from many other locations where journalists with White House press credentials can go. Also, President Trump stated that the administration was “going to keep them [the AP] out until such time that they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”
Legal action
The legal action instigated by the AP aims to overthrow the ban. The court documents state that the ban violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It cites previous court cases that decided that denying journalists access to White House press events “based upon the content of the journalist’s speech” is “prohibited under the First Amendment.”
Additionally, the AP claims that the ban violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is because journalists’ First Amendment right to report on the government “undoubtedly qualifies as liberty which may not be denied without due process of law.”
What next?
The AP’s legal documents asked the courts to issue an emergency motion to overturn the White House’s ban. Unfortunately, in the first hearing of the case earlier today, a U.S. District Judge denied that request.
In response, the White House also stated, “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.” However, during the hearing, the District Judge called the ban “discriminatory” and “problematic.” He also urged the Trump administration to reconsider the ban, saying that case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.” A further hearing has now been set for March 20, 2025.
What we think
To many people, this may seem a trivial issue. The rest of the world will continue to use the Gulf of Mexico name whatever President Trump says. However, you can’t have free speech when a government wants to influence what the news agencies say. The Associated Press has been a member of the White House press pool for over 100 years. It’s also held in high regard around the world for the quality and accuracy of its reporting. As such, the White House ban on its journalists should be a concern to everyone. In addition, when the U.S. Government is prepared to take draconian action on such a minor issue, it sets a worrying precedent for the future.
