By David Hucks September 24, 2026
For nearly a decade, “fake news” has been one of Donald Trump’s signature phrases. For most of that time, the fight between the president and the press was mostly verbal: insults, nicknames and angry posts. That changed last week. On Friday, September 18, Trump used Truth Social to announce that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the White House, effective immediately, over what he called their constant false reporting [Al Jazeera, 2026]. By early Thursday morning, a federal judge had ordered the ban reversed, at least for now. The ongoing conflict highlights the turbulent relationship between President Trump and the News Media, which remains a significant issue in American politics. Al Jazeera
So, are the president and the media at war? The short answer is yes, and it has become more formal than ever. The fight now plays out through credential revocations, courtroom filings, defamation suits and a new White House video channel. The longer answer is that each side has reasons to keep the conflict going, and the American public, whose trust in the news is already at historic lows, may be the side losing the most.
From Insults to Institutional Action
Trump’s hostility toward the press is nothing new. He has described journalists with labels ranging from “fake news” and “enemy of the people” to far harsher insults, and more than 600 of his posts on Twitter targeted specific outlets, led by The New York Times, CNN, NBC and MSNBC, Fox News and The Washington Post [Wikipedia, 2026]. WikipediaWikipedia
What has changed in the second term is the move from rhetoric to policy. In March 2026, Trump posted that outlets behind certain reporting should face treason charges, and in April, after an alleged leak about a U.S. rescue operation in Iran, he said the administration would demand the source from the media company or threaten jail [Wikipedia, 2026]. Wikipedia
The ongoing saga between President Trump and the News Media continues to unfold, raising questions about press freedom and accountability.
The Pentagon offers the clearest earlier example. In October 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rolled out new press rules, and many outlets turned in their credentials rather than accept a ban on seeking information from government employees without Pentagon approval [Wikipedia, 2026]. Notably, most outlets refused to sign the pledge, including conservative-leaning Fox News and Newsmax [Axios, 2026]. On March 20, 2026, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that parts of the policy violated the First and Fifth Amendments [U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, 2026]. The Pentagon responded by closing the “Correspondents’ Corridor” that reporters had used for decades and saying journalists would eventually work from an annex outside the main building [PBS NewsHour, 2026]. 2025 Pentagon press pass forfeiture +3
That pattern of a restriction, a lawsuit, a court loss and a workaround matters. It suggests the White House ban was not a one-time outburst but the latest step in a strategy that has been building for more than a year. That strategy reached its peak last week.
The White House Ban: What Happened and What Each Side Argues
The ban moved fast. Journalists from the three outlets were stopped from entering the White House on Saturday and had their credentials taken [CNBC, 2026]. When asked which outlets might be next, Trump named The New York Times and The Washington Post [Al Jazeera, 2026]. CNBCAl Jazeera
The rest of the press corps reacted with unusual unity. Fox News’s Washington bureau chief, who chairs the rotating TV pool, announced that the participating networks would suspend presidential pool coverage after CNN was pulled from its scheduled pool turn [Al Jazeera, 2026]. National Public Radio and still photographers in the White House press corps also paused live coverage [CNN, 2026]. When a Fox News executive helps lead a protest on behalf of CNN, the fight is clearly about institutional access, not just partisan rivalry. Al JazeeraCNN
The three outlets sued, saying in a joint statement that they were defending their First Amendment rights and the principle that government does not decide what the press reports [Al Jazeera, 2026]. Their complaint argued that the ban was a direct attack on the First Amendment that had already seriously hampered their ability to cover the administration [CNBC, 2026]. Al JazeeraCNBC
The administration’s defense deserves a fair hearing. Trump himself said the White House was not attacking the free press, which he said he values, but rather “fake news,” which he called corrupt, coordinated and a threat to national security [CNBC, 2026].
Justice Department lawyers argued that access to the White House is a privilege rather than a right, and that the government had two compelling reasons for the ban: enforcing minimum standards of professionalism and protecting classified information [CBS News, 2026]. The DOJ pointed to coverage of the White House ballroom construction, reported ammunition shortages during the Iran war, and the Republican midterm convention as reporting it said endangered national security and spread falsehoods [NPR, 2026]. The government also asked that the landmark case affirming journalists’ access to the White House be overturned [ABC News, 2026]. Trump media ban lawsuit set for Wednesday court hearing +3
Supporters see a press corps that performs outrage for the cameras. Former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left the job last month, said on Sean Hannity’s podcast that some reporters privately apologized to her for aggressive questioning, which she described as performative [RedState, 2026]. Earlier in the term, she framed the White House’s tighter control over press access as a way to open coverage to more outlets, saying it was not about ideology [Axios, 2025]. RedStateAxios
Those arguments now face their first real test in court.
The Courts Step In, Again
Early Thursday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to immediately restore access for the three outlets, granting a 14-day temporary restraining order and finding they were likely to win, at least on the grounds that their credentials were revoked without due process [NBC News, 2026]. NBC News
The judge has a history here. Kelly, a 2017 Trump appointee, ruled in 2018 in favor of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after the White House pulled his press pass, and the administration returned the pass days later [NBC News, 2026]. Trump criticized Kelly after the case was assigned to him [NBC News, 2026]. NBC NewsNBC News
The legal line is more precise than either side’s rhetoric suggests. In the Associated Press’s separate case, a 2-1 appeals court majority made up of two Trump appointees said the White House cannot exclude journalists from spaces generally open to the press, such as the briefing room, based on viewpoint, while that case turned on restricted spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One [CBS News, 2026]. In other words, courts have given presidents wide room to decide who travels on Air Force One, but much less room to lock reporters out of the building entirely because of what they write. CBS News
This is where original analysis matters: the courts are not deciding whether CNN or Politico got a story right. They are deciding whether the government can punish a news outlet for coverage it calls false. Those are very different questions. The First Amendment has never required reporting to be flawless; it limits the government’s power to be the judge of that. If a president could strip access based on his own finding of “fake news,” the label itself would become a legal tool.
The Bigger Battlefield: Lawsuits, Regulators and Direct Channels
The White House ban is one front in a broader conflict. An Axios analysis counted 61 media and defamation lawsuits involving Trump, his businesses or his administration since 2015, including 16 in 2025 and nine so far in 2026 [Axios, 2026]. That tally includes suits from the Associated Press and The New York Times alleging retaliation, cases brought by NPR and PBS over funding cuts, and Trump’s own $10 billion defamation suit against the BBC [Axios, 2026]. He also sued Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. over its report on a 2003 letter to Jeffrey Epstein [Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo, 2025]. Trump media and defamation lawsuits surge in 2025 and 2026 +2
At the same time, the White House is building its own megaphone. On Monday it launched a 24-hour YouTube stream with no anchors, reporters or original journalism, carrying speeches, announcements and presidential highlights [Al Jazeera, 2026]. That builds on White House Wire, a news-style site launched in 2025 to promote favorable coverage [The Guardian via Wikipedia, 2025]. Al JazeeraWikipedia
Taken together, the approach has two halves: make traditional reporting harder and costlier, while offering Americans a direct, unfiltered alternative. The strategy works best when audiences already doubt the press, which leads to the most important part of this story.
The Trust Deficit Both Sides Are Fighting Over
Americans’ faith in the news is at a low point. Gallup found last fall that just 28% of adults trust newspapers, TV and radio to report fully, accurately and fairly, down from 40% five years earlier, while roughly seven in 10 expressed little or no confidence [Gallup, 2025]. Republican trust has not topped 20% since 2015, the year Trump launched his first campaign [The Hill, 2025]. Yet the decline is not only on the right; trust has also slipped among Democrats (51%) and independents (27%), and older adults trust the media far more than younger Americans [Poynter, 2025]. Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S. +2
That data cuts both ways. Trump’s supporters can reasonably say the press created its own credibility problem through errors, anonymous sourcing and perceived bias. Critics can reasonably respond that years of “fake news” attacks from the most powerful person in the country helped drive those numbers down. Both things can be true at once, and the numbers suggest they probably are.
Here is the uncomfortable reality for both sides: conflict pays. The president energizes his base by fighting a disliked institution, and national outlets draw attention, subscribers and sympathy by being targeted. Neither has a strong incentive to call a truce. The cost lands on citizens, who must now sort facts from a mix of government-produced video, partisan media and legacy outlets that half the country doesn’t believe.
Conclusion
The “war” between President Trump and the media is no longer a metaphor about harsh words. It now involves revoked credentials, emergency court hearings, billion-dollar lawsuits and a government-run video channel. For now, the courts have drawn a line: a president may criticize reporters as harshly as he likes, but excluding them over unwelcome coverage without due process likely crosses constitutional limits. The 14-day order buys time, not a final answer, and the administration has already signaled it wants the underlying precedent overturned.
What happens next will shape more than White House briefings. It will help decide whether “fake news” remains an insult anyone can use, or becomes a label the government can enforce. For Americans of every political stripe, that distinction is worth watching closely, and the best defense is to read widely, check claims against original documents and court filings, and hold every source, including the government, to the same standard.
Further Reading
Donald Trump’s conflict with the news media — Wikipedia
Judge orders White House to restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico — NBC News
Trump bans CNN, MS NOW, Politico from White House — Al Jazeera
Trump media ban lawsuit set for court hearing — CNBC
DOJ defends Trump White House media ban — CBS News
DOJ defends White House media ban, urges court to reject lawsuit — NPR
DOJ defends White House news bans, citing national security — ABC News
Trump TV: Can the U.S. president bypass mainstream media? — Al Jazeera
Trump media and defamation lawsuits surge — Axios
Pete Hegseth restricts journalists’ access inside Pentagon — U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
Pentagon will remove media offices after judge reinstates NYT credentials — PBS NewsHour
Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S. — Gallup
Leavitt defends White House press rules — Axios
Karoline Leavitt on the White House press corps — RedState
White House App Hits No. 1 in News and Cracks App Store Top 20 as Americans Tune Out Fake News
As of September 22, 2026, the official White House mobile app reached No. 1 in the News category on the App Store and climbed into the Top 20 among all apps. The app previously hit No. 1 in News and, at launch, soared as high as No. 4 across the entire App Store. More and more Americans are gravitating to the app because they want the news straight from the source, not filtered through networks that have spent years distorting the record of President Donald J. Trump.
That demand is rising as legacy networks fall in line behind CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, outlets whose White House credentials were pulled after a long record of false reporting. Other networks have now withheld pool coverage in solidarity. The American people are not waiting on those cameras; they are going straight to the Presidency.
Americans are choosing the source over the spin.
Launched in March 2026, the official White House app carries a 4.9 out of 5 average rating on the App store and more than two million downloads across the App Store and Google Play. It has now reclaimed the No. 1 News ranking in the country and broken into the overall Top 20. That is proof the American people want unfiltered access to the Presidency.
With the official White House app, Americans can:
Get news direct from the source: policy initiatives, key victories, and major developments with no filter and no spin, plus official social feeds, photos, and videos in one place.
Receive real-time updates and instant push notifications from the President, press briefings, and breaking White House news the moment they happen.
Watch live events and the full daily schedule, including speeches, bill signings, state visits, and historic moments as they unfold.
Dive into a dynamic media library of highlights and stay connected on the latest policy breakthroughs.
Send their voice and feedback directly to the Administration.
TrumpTV: the Administration’s biggest moments, 24/7.
The ranking surge overlapped with the launch of TrumpTV, a major success. Americans can now watch the Trump Administration’s biggest moments all in one place. Top videos, major remarks, and must-see highlights are streaming 24/7 and updated in real time. Stay informed and stay up to date. TrumpTV is available on WhiteHouse.gov, YouTube, and the official White House app.
From the Oval Office straight to your phone, the official White House app is the fastest, most powerful way to stay informed and engaged with the Trump Administration.
