The stories that got them banned: Trump lists ‘reporting incidents’ in letters to three news outlets
by Susan Ferrechio · The Washington TimesReporting on the planned military bunker beneath the new East Wing complex and an article about the Defense Department’s munitions shortage are among the stories the Trump administration used to justify banning CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House this week.
A U.S. District judge has temporarily restored White House access for the outlets, but not before the administration’s press office sent them letters listing the coverage that got them banned and setting a Friday deadline for them to respond.
The White House last week revoked the credentials of nearly 80 journalists from the three outlets after President Trump called their reporting “fake news” and later deemed their coverage a threat to national security.
The sudden ban escalated Mr. Trump’s decade-long battle with the press and hindered some of the coverage of his United Nations address and state visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.
Mr. Trump’s press team, in separate letters sent to the banned organizations on Tuesday, said their credentials were revoked because they published stories containing “sensitive security information.”
The list included an August 2026 CNN story that cited unnamed sources who reported the U.S. had exhausted most of its interceptors for a critical missile defense system.
SEE ALSO: Unbanned: Trump team lets ejected journos back into White House
The letters pointed to additional stories about national security and national defense issues that relied almost exclusively on anonymous sources.
It referenced a Jan. 19, 2026 CNN article, “Inside the Plans to rebuild the ’top secret’ bunker beneath the White House East Wing,” among others.
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The coverage, Mr. Trump’s press team wrote to the impacted outlets, “diverts White House resources and those of the national security team in particular, which must evaluate whether the leaked information is classified, the source of any leak, and the security implications of any such disclosure.”
Some of the reporting deemed offensive by the White House had little to do with national security.
In its letter to Politico, the press office dinged the outlet for using unnamed sources for a story published earlier this month in its “Playbook” column that claimed the GOP’s mid-term convention in Dallas had been a “disaster.”
Mr. Trump’s press team appeared to be referencing a Sept. 9 Playbook column headlined “The vibes are very bad in Texas.”
SEE ALSO: White House: Trump spent more than 21,000 minutes this term talking to the press
The piece quotes two secret sources: “A Republican lobbyist close to the White House who attended an RNC donor event at the Ritz Carlton” in Dallas and an unnamed source “close to the White House.” The second source told the publication they hoped “no one watches” the convention, “since it’s competing versus NFL opening games,” and “hopefully nobody notices the embarrassing show.”
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In all, the White House press office listed six offensive stories published by Politico, three stories aired by MS Now, formerly MSNBC, and four reports by CNN in their letters justifying the ban.
For now, the Trump administration and the media continue to battle over access to the White House.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against Mr. Trump’s ban of the three outlets.
He ordered the administration to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the press credentials revoked nearly a week ago by the White House. Reporters from the three news organizations were allowed back into the White House Thursday morning after initially being turned away by the Secret Service.
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The media outlets are due to file new arguments in court next week seeking a temporary injunction against the ban, which if granted, would preserve the journalists’ White House access while they battle with the Trump administration in court.
Judge Kelly, in a decision handed down at 2 a.m. Thursday, appeared unconvinced by the Trump administration’s argument, put forward by Justice Department senior counsel Michael Velchik, that the three outlets posed a threat to national security.
He used Mr. Trump’s own words to make his case.
“Certainly that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ’banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House,” Judge Kelly wrote. “Instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiff’s reporting.”
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Mr. Velchick said due process has been provided to the outlets, who have yet to respond to the White House complaints outlined in the letters.
“If they have points to raise, they can do so to the president, who will consider anything — but I didn’t even hear them objecting to those points here today,” Mr. Velchik argued in court on Thursday.
The judge’s ruling agreed with the media outlets’ lawyer, Theodore “Ted” Boutrous Jr., who argued in court Wednesday that the sudden ban violated the First Amendment and the organizations’ rights to due process.
“Moreover, Plaintiffs — and the public — have an abiding interest in maintaining the status quo … given the importance of the free press, which ’stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people,’” Judge Kelly wrote in his decision, citing a 1936 case against separately taxing newspapers.
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Mr. Boutrous called the judge’s decision “a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.”
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Susan Ferrechio
sferrechio@washingtontimes.com
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