White House Sparks Uproar Over Blacklisting AP News

The White House has sparked outrage by banning Associated Press journalists from covering President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One and in the Oval Office.

The all-out suppression effort had been building all week as the Trump administration barred AP White House correspondents and photographers from certain events because of the news organization’s decision to stick with the four-centuries-old name “Gulf of Mexico” over Trump’s newly minted “Gulf of America.”

Washington news organizations denounced Trump’s apparent assault on freedom of speech and braced for more to come.

“The actions taken to restrict AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a geographic location chip away at this important right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for all Americans,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement.

The New York Times, in a statement quoted by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, condemned the White House move as being “at odds with the press freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”

And New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker highlighted the unprecedented nature of Trump’s stifling of words that don’t conform with what many critics see as his emerging autocratic rule.

While some have called for other news outlets to boycott the White House press briefings in a show of solidarity, Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple pointed out that doing so would be counterproductive: “Who’d interrogate Trump officials about their actions against the AP?”

The Associated Press, the world’s largest news outlet, announced last month that it would not adhere to Trump’s decision to rename the body of water that borders the United States, Mexico, and Cuba.

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich on Friday called the AP’s decision “divisive” and said it “exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation.”

Trump officials prohibited veteran AP News White House reporter Darlene Superville from traveling on Friday with Trump in her capacity as the designated wire reporter covering the president’s trip to Mar-a-Lago.

“While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One,” Budowich wrote in a statement on X. “Going forward, that space will now be opened up to the many thousands of reporters who have been barred from covering these intimate areas of the administration.”

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Earlier in the week, the White House iced out an AP reporter from attending a signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, called the action “a textbook violation of not only the First Amendment, but the president’s own executive order on freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.”

After Trump announced last month that his administration would rename the gulf to replace “Mexico” with “America,” the AP explained why it would continue with the old name.

“The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” the AP announced of its style guidance. “As 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.”

But the AP said it would go along with Trump’s decision to revert the official name of America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to Mount McKinley. “The area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country,” explained the news organization.