AP reporters barred from White House events over editorial style policy

Incident Details

Date of Incident: February 11, 2025
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Targets: The Associated Press
Case number: 1:25-cv-00532
Case Status: Ongoing
Type of case: Civil

Government agency or public official involved: Federal government: White House
Type of denial: Government event

February 21, 2025 - Update

The Associated Press sues Trump officials over access ban

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit in federal court against three Trump administration officials on Feb. 21, 2025, seeking to reverse a ban on the wire service in the Oval Office, Air Force One and other White House spaces.

In the complaint, as well as in same-day motions for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, the wire service sought emergency relief from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order the administration to provide access to spaces available to other members of the White House press pool, of which AP is its longest-standing member.

The suit names White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as defendants.

Starting Feb. 11, the White House began barring AP reporters from events at the White House because AP editorial policy refers to the Gulf of Mexico, despite its renaming by the Trump administration. On Feb. 14, the outlet’s print and photojournalists were barred indefinitely from covering events in the Oval Office and Air Force One.

AP said in its complaint that Wiles emailed the news agency on Feb. 18 to explain that the White House had targeted it because its stylebook “is used by many as a standard for writing and editing,” and that it “advises journalists, scholars and classrooms around our country.”

The suit calls the ban a violation of the First and Fifth amendments and demands a jury trial.

“The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech,” the outlet wrote in its complaint. “Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.

"Emergency relief is even more warranted here,” it said, “because the White House’s actions are explicitly based on the content of the AP’s journalism, and because the denial of access and chilling effect on speech harms not just a single White House correspondent, but all of the AP’s journalists—and by extension all of the four billion people worldwide who get their news from the AP each day."

February 14, 2025 - Update

AP journalists indefinitely barred from Oval Office, Air Force One

The Associated Press is barred indefinitely from covering events in the Oval Office and Air Force One, according to a social media post from a White House spokesperson on Feb. 14, 2025.

Taylor Budowich, White House deputy chief of staff and cabinet secretary, posted on X that the news agency’s decision to “ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America” was behind the loss of “privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One.” The post stated that AP reporters and photographers would retain their White House credentials.

Around the time of the announcement, Andrew Feinberg, a White House correspondent for the Independent, posted on X that a White House correspondent for the AP was informed that she would not be traveling with the president on Air Force One.

“At Joint Base Andrews, @AP reporter @dsupervilleap — the scheduled wire reporter for today — was just told she’s not traveling with @POTUS at the White House’s direction,” wrote Feinberg.

Shortly after Budowich’s post, an AP journalist was blocked from attending a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on behalf of other members of the White House press corps, reported The Hill.

The Washington Post reported that on Thursday afternoon, an AP reporter was blocked from attending two events in the Oval Office, including a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the swearing-in for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

AP’s Julie Pace, in a statement, called it “a deeply troubling escalation of the administration’s continued efforts to punish The Associated Press for its editorial decisions.”

February 11, 2025

Two reporters for The Associated Press were prevented from attending events at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2025, in retaliation for the wire service’s editorial policy to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico despite its renaming by the administration, AP reported.

Julie Pace, AP’s senior vice president and executive editor, said in a statement that the denials happened after the newsroom received a warning, later said to have come from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office,” Pace wrote. “This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing.”

While an AP photographer was allowed into the Oval Office for the event, AP reported that a second reporter was also barred from a separate event in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room later that evening.

Pace condemned the denials in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Feb. 12.

“The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” Pace wrote. “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say. This is viewpoint discrimination based on a news organization’s editorial choices and a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

AP’s style guidance on the name change, issued Jan. 23, advises that the Gulf of Mexico has held that name for more than 400 years and the news service must ensure that place names are recognizable to a global audience. “The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” the guidance reads.

The AP Stylebook is used not only by the news agency and its reporters in over 200 locations worldwide but by journalists and other writers nationally and globally. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was not able to confirm whether journalists from any other news outlets who also follow AP’s guidance were similarly barred.

CNN reporter Brian Stelter reported that an AP reporter assigned to the media pool was again blocked from entering the Oval Office for Tulsi Gabbard’s swearing-in as director of national intelligence on Feb. 12.

Leavitt defended the decision to exclude the wire service when questioned about it during a news briefing that afternoon, according to The Hill, adding that it is a “privilege to cover the White House.”

“If we feel there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt said. “And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that but that is what it is.”

The AP did not respond to a request for further comment. In her letter to Wiles, Pace wrote that it is unclear whether AP reporters will continue to be excluded from future White House events and she urged the administration not to do so.

“When journalists are blocked from doing their job, it is the American public who suffers,” Pace wrote. “The AP is prepared to vigorously defend its constitutional rights and protest the infringement on the public’s right to independent news coverage of their government and elected officials.”

Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include details about a third White House event that AP reporters were prevented from attending, as well as comments from Karoline Leavitt during a news briefing on Feb. 12, 2025.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].