Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Thursday were allowed back into the White House after earlier being denied access as President Donald Trump’s media ban descended into chaos.
Read more Trump Is Trying To ‘Lake America’ A.I. — And It’s Not Going Great
Early Thursday, a federal judge ordered Trump to restore White House access for journalists from the three outlets, saying his ban on them was likely unconstitutional.
But reporters and staffers from all three were barred from entering the White House on Thursday morning as they attempted to return to work, prompting the outlets to file a request for an emergency hearing.
As of roughly noon Eastern time, however, reporters from all three had successfully entered the building after their press badges had been reactivated.
The restored access came just minutes before the Justice Department’s deadline to respond to a request from U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly explaining why the administration defied his temporary order lifting Trump’s ban while litigation proceeds.
“We are back and we are ready to cover the president,” CNN’s Betsy Klein said from the grounds of the White House.
In a declaration to the court, the director of White House Press Operations, Micah Stopperich, said the department was notified Thursday morning to “restore access to affected reporters by turning on their hard badges.”
MSNOW reporting that their journalists have regained access to the WH pic.twitter.com/zfgpScmqC6
Read more The White House Cited This Story When It Banned Politico. Its Source Was Reportedly JD Vance.
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 24, 2026
It is unclear whether the access change means TV press pool operations are back to normal for now. The pool system has the major networks share the responsibility of providing coverage of presidential events.
The standoff comes during the historic White House visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which has received limited coverage because of the breakdown in relations between the Trump administration and the media.
“It remains to be seen whether CNN is indeed going to be included in the network TV pool rotation,” Klein said. “But for now, we are back on campus and ready to get back to work.”
Trump first announced he was banning the outlets Friday, claiming they were peddling “fake news” and later arguing their reporting was a risk to national security.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump became frustrated with the media after aide Natalie Harp showed him videos of MS NOW hosts criticizing his administration.
The unprecedented decision was met with a press boycott on Monday.
In a joint lawsuit, the three outlets argued the ban was a flagrant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.
At a Wednesday hearing, Kelly said journalists are entitled to due process before their White House press passes can be revoked, adding that it did not appear the White House had given the three news outlets a meaningful opportunity to contest the ban.
Leave a Reply