President also due to hold meetings with 11 world leaders
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45s agoUS TV networks suspend White House pool coverage over Trump media ban
19m agoTrump set for UN meetings with war on agenda as speech looms
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.
The collective decision came after the barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights.
The ban was an extraordinary escalation of Trump’s battle against news outlets. After a coalition of networks including ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC – which along with CNN form a press “pool” that share the responsibilities of capturing and distributing footage of the president carried by news outlets worldwide – announced they would cease coverage in solidarity with the barred outlets, the White House promoted its own feed online, branding it “Trump TV”. The channel purported to show “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place”.
“Get real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone,” the White House posted on social media. “No noise. Just the news that matters most – straight from the Trump Administration.”
It is extremely rare for a president to travel or make public appearances without the accompaniment of a representative from the White House television pool. Network cameras have provided coverage of the president since 1950.
On Monday, the ban against CNN meant that no broadcaster was covering Trump’s midday ribbon-cutting to unveil a new White House helipad. Although the White House provided a livestream, without professional boom mics and audio setup, the president’s remarks were inaudible over the sounds of a helicopter’s engine running in the background.
The president abruptly announced his ban against outlets this weekend in a Truth Social post, saying he had enough of “purposely negative stories” about him. Journalists had their press badges confiscated by Secret Service on Saturday.
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Donald Trump is expected to start the day with a speech to assembled delegates at the UN General Assembly, before meeting with no fewer than 11 world leaders, bilaterally or in group settings.
While the contents of his speech are unknown, Trump last year caused a stir with a combative address, telling the audience that their countries were “going to hell” for, among other things, climate policy and mass migration.
The president is then set for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with leaders from four continents on Tuesday.
It comes against the backdrop of an unstable Middle East and a four-and-a-half-year-old war in Ukraine that shows no signs of abating.
Trump will meet with British prime minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the representatives of the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
In the evening, he may meet dozens more leaders, albeit briefly, during a leaders’ reception. Trump met with French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday and additions to his Tuesday schedule are possible.
Here, my colleague Robert Tait provides some analysis on what may be expected from Trump’s address:
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds. Newsrooms including the New York Times and the Washington Post also decided to hold off on publishing or distributing still photographs taken as part of the White House pool coverage on Monday until midnight as part of the collective effort. More here.
The barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights. The parties are seeking a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban – and return access for the journalists – while the case plays out. More here.
Trump is bracing for a loss in the lawsuit brought by the three media organizations, as he considers that the judge presiding over the case – his own appointee – previously ordered the White House to restore credentials for journalist Jim Acosta. “In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms. More here.
The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort. More here.
Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her. More here.
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