A 7-Day Standoff That Said So Much About Trump and the Media

A week ago Friday, at 3:04 p.m., with his chief of staff in Florida and the West Wing winding down for the weekend, President Trump signed off on a 130-word message that sent the Washington press corps into a tailspin.

“Effective immediately,” the president wrote on Truth Social, he was “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

Mr. Trump says this kind of thing all the time. But the idea of a “ban” caught reporters — and the president’s own advisers — by surprise. How would a ban work? Was it legal? Was this for real?

Amid a dragging war effort in Iran, soaring gas prices and higher interest rates, Mr. Trump had managed to generate a media tempest out of thin air.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/business/media/trump-white-house-press-ban.html