by WorldTribune Staff, February 25, 2025 Real World News
As it continues to refuse to sail in the warm waters of the Gulf of America, The Associated Press is still out in the cold when it comes to special media access to President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden has declined to restore the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and Mar-a-Lago after the outlet sued White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief-of-staff Susie Wiles, and her deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich.
The AP claimed that its exclusion from those press venues was a violation of its First Amendment rights.
Trump was personally involved in the decision to revoke the special status that the AP has had for many years. He called their work “dishonest reporting.” Trump slammed the outlet after it refused to use Gulf of America in their reporting, preferring to stick with the old term, Gulf of Mexico.
The White House responded to the lawsuit, saying that “the Associated Press continues to enjoy general media access to the White House press facilities.”
“This case,” the White House said, “is not about prohibiting the Associated Press from entering White House grounds. Nor is it about prohibiting the Associated Press from attending briefings in the James S. Brady Briefing Room or using other press facilities at the White House. Instead, this case is about the Associated Press losing special media access to the President—a quintessentially discretionary presidential choice that infringes no constitutional right.”
“Presidents historically provided this special access to the Associated Press, but that discretionary choice does not create a constitutional right. Just as the President need not furnish a personal interview to all journalistic comers, the President has discretion to decide who will have special media access to exclusive events within the Oval Office,” the White House response read.
McFadden agreed, saying that he did not see how the AP faced “irreparable harm,” as they had claimed, over no longer having intimate access to Trump. The judge said, as did the White House response, that the AP “can get access to the same information” from pool reporters and cameras.
McFadden scheduled a hearing for March 20 to hear the AP’s case for a preliminary injunction.
In an executive order, Trump directed the Department of the Interior to “take all appropriate actions to rename as the ‘Gulf of America’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the State of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico.”
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