Trump, who often accuses mainstream media outlets of writing "fake news," said on Truth Social that those outlets shouldn't be allowed to "FICTION and LIES."
President Donald Trump said Friday that he is banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House over their coverage of him.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that those outlets "shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America."
In the Oval Office later Friday afternoon, Trump said he was imposing the ban in response to "cumulative stories" by the three outlets.
The White House under Trump briefly tried to suspend a CNN reporter's press pass in 2018, and it is currently in a lawsuit over an attempted ban of Associated Press journalists from certain spaces.
Trump said Friday that the effort to bar news outlets is worthwhile, even if it does not hold up in court.
"I think it's good to point it out whether it survives or doesn't," Trump said.
Trump has long targeted news outlets and individual journalists over what he claims is unfair coverage. He encourages his supporters at political rallies to boo and jeer at reporters present, and he regularly takes to social media to call out journalists by name and insult them in personal terms.
But the attempt to block White House access to disfavored news outlets takes Trump's open hostility for critical reporting to a new extreme.
It could also draw legal challenges over violations of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects the freedom of the press.
"We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government," CNN said in a statement later Friday defending its White House team.
"Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right," CNN said.
MS NOW had no immediate comment. CNBC has reached out to Politico.
Arthur Spitzer, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNBC that his organization believes Trump's post is unconstitutional.
"He's plainly discriminating against them because they don't like the way they report the news, and the government isn't supposed to do that," Spitzer said of Trump. "Certainly, our view is the president cannot control, or try to control, the news by banning outlets from official events because he doesn't like the way they're reporting on him."
Spitzer is representing the ACLU in an ongoing case related to Trump's ban of AP journalists from certain smaller spaces including the Oval Office and Air Force One.
Reporting synthesized and verified under Nexvoro.tech editorial guidelines. Full primary records referenced via CNBC Top News.
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