President Donald Trump’s botched media ban could become “history’s most foolish constitutional crisis,” the Wall Street Journal has warned in a blistering editorial.
Trump, 80, announced last Friday that he was immediately banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from covering the White House, claiming they propagated “fake news.”
The media outlets took legal action, citing a violation of the First Amendment, with the Trump administration then claiming the access had been revoked due to prior reporting, flagging concerns of national security.
The unprecedented ban also led to another unique situation where five rival networks refused to cover presidential events out of solidarity, including Trump’s beloved Fox News.
Early on Thursday morning, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order, upending the president’s media ban.
Trump, who relishes being on TV, also complained on Thursday that CNN had “refused” to cover his lavish White House welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping. He even bragged it was “Actually made for Television,” at taxpayers’ expense.
The network quickly fact-checked his Truth Social post, saying their press credentials were not reinstated in time to attend the event.
The editorial board of the Rupert Murdoch-owned WSJ pointed out the mess that greeted banned media as they began work on Thursday, hours after the early-morning court ruling.
“What was the point for Mr. Trump of provoking this in the first place? No President in history has enjoyed TV attention more, and banned media can continue to report on the Administration, albeit without the TV cameras,” the board wrote.
The publication pointed out that Trump’s tantrum did not emanate from one particular story, but “cumulative stories” over his second term as president. The thin-skinned, easily-bruised senior citizen moaned, “You get sick of it.”
The WSJ noted, “But the lawyers forced to try legally justifying the President’s action couldn’t exactly say that.”
Kelly’s ruling also stated that Trump’s lawyers offered “little to back up their asserted national security interest,” and pointed out that the media pass of one CNN journalist was recently renewed by the White House “several months after she published some of the identified reporting.”
The WSJ editorial highlighted the “certain legal tension” that the White House doubles as Trump’s office and residence as well as a workplace for government officials and a venue for state functions.
“Today’s briefing room used to be a swimming pool. Perhaps it will be again,” the editorial concluded. “But does Mr. Trump love swimming, or does he love being on TV?”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
