President Donald Trumpdoubled down on what he called his “obligation” to ban press outlets from the White House that don’t run positive stories about him.
Last week, Trump said he was revoking the press credentials of journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico because of their coverage of his administration. Vice President JD Vance claimed that “92%” of stories about the president were negative, although it is unclear where he got that number. The outlets have since filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration, and the case was assigned to a Trump-appointed judge who previously ruled that Trump’s revocation of ex-CNN journalist Jim Acosta’s press credentials was illegal.
Trump visited Gracie Mansion in New York with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday and held a closed-door meeting with the leader. The two took questions from local press, and CNN broadcast the Spectrum News feed.
“Mr. President, are you banning outlets like MS Now, CNN, and Politico in order to distract from the Iran war and high gas prices?” one reporter asked.
Trump responded by declaring that he has an “obligation” to ban certain press.
“I’m only doing it because I think the press also has an obligation,” Trump said, repeating claims about how he won elections “in a landslide” and that the economy is doing well. “Nobody has ever done what we’ve done. I never get anything positive. It’s always negative.”
Trump also claimed that banning the press is a matter of “national security,” a term he has invoked for several of his recent projects, like the Triumphal Arch and the White House ballroom.
“If they’re fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house,” Trump said. “This is a special house, Gracie Mansion. Well, the White House is the most special of all houses, I have to say. And I don’t even think the Mayor would argue with that. And I think I have an obligation not to let fake news. They’re very bad for the country, very bad for national security. So I have that obligation. So we’ll see how it works out.”
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