Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 25, 2026
- Location
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Targets
- CNN
- Government agency or public official involved
- Type of denial
- Press credential or media list
Denial of Access
After CNN was blocked from traveling with President Donald Trump on Air Force One, reporters from conservative network Real America’s Voice News, seen above, cover his departure from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to Tennessee, on Sept. 26, 2026.
CNN turned away from Air Force One for campaign trips
CNN was blocked once again by the Trump administration from accompanying the president on Air Force One on Oct. 16, 2026, for a weekend of campaign-related trips.
It’s the third time the outlet has been barred from the aircraft since a federal judge imposed a temporary block on the administration’s ban of the network and two others — Politico and MS NOW — from the White House complex.
CNN learned on Oct. 16 that it had been removed from the list of approved outlets to travel with the president to Dalton, Georgia, and West Palm Beach, Florida, on trips planned for Oct. 16, 17 and 18, The Washington Sun reported.
CNN was slated to be the representative of the TV pool providing shared televised coverage of the president for other networks. Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media analyst, said there would be no pool camera for the trip.
“CNN was slated to handle out-of-town TV pool duties on Saturday and Sunday as well. So, once again, the White House is preventing a TV pool crew from fulfilling its assignment, and once again, there will not be pooled TV coverage of the president’s appearances,” he reported.
Instead, conservative outlet Real America’s Voice News provided TV coverage, according to Stelter.
CNN once again blocked by Trump from Air Force One
CNN was removed by the White House on Sept. 30, 2026, from the TV press pool slated to accompany President Donald Trump on Air Force One for a campaign trip the next day.
The move followed a similar exclusion from an Air Force One trip for Trump to Knoxville, Tennessee, five days prior, which occurred amid an ongoing court battle litigating whether the president can ban the outlet and two others — MS NOW and Politico — from the White House.
CNN had been assigned in a White House press rotation document issued Sept. 27 to travel with the president to Denton, Texas, and Durant, Oklahoma, on Oct. 1. However, on the eve of the planned trip, a daily presidential schedule revealed that the network was once again left out. As a result, no pool camera will travel with the president, reported The Hill.
In an Oct. 1 statement provided to NBC News, Theodore Boutros, the attorney representing CNN, MS NOW and Politico in their litigation against a wholesale ban from the White House, said that “the White House is persisting in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing the President’s unconstitutional ‘ban on the free press’ by barring CNN from fulfilling its role as a designated television network pooler—to the detriment of CNN, its fellow pool members and, ultimately, the American public.”
CNN was told by the White House on Sept. 25, 2026, that its journalists would not be allowed on Air Force One for a presidential trip the following day.
The denial followed a turbulent week after President Donald Trump said on Sept. 18 that he would ban the network and two other outlets, MS NOW and Politico, from the White House. Reporters were then kept out starting Sept. 19, before the ban was temporarily overturned by a federal judge on Sept. 24.
CNN was slated to accompany Trump on his plane as he traveled to attend a college football game in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sept. 26, and planned to cover him as part of its responsibility with the White House TV pool, which rotates presidential TV coverage duties with four other networks as a cost-saving measure.
However, a note from the White House on the evening of Sept. 25 announcing the president’s schedule for the next day showed that CNN had been removed from the trip, the network reported.
CNN’s slot was not filled by the other member networks of the pool — Fox News, ABC, NBC and CBS. Instead, two conservative outlets, LindellTV and Real America’s Voice News, were assigned by the White House to provide TV coverage of the trip, according to Mediaite.
Trump repeated his disapproval of CNN’s coverage on the morning of Sept. 26 in a Truth Social post, using a pejorative description of MS NOW: “Why should perpetrators of FAKE NEWS, like CNN and MSDNC, be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House? Despite my big Election Win, almost 100% of ‘TRUMP’ coverage is negative, and has been for years!”
As he was leaving for his Knoxville trip, the president was asked by an MS NOW reporter whether he preferred outlets that supported him to be part of the White House pool.
“I want real news. I love an open, free press. What I don’t like is the fake press,” he responded.
While the White House TV pool initially staged what was essentially a boycott of pool coverage of the president in response to Trump’s ban of CNN from the White House, its members released guidance over the weekend indicating that they would decide on an ad hoc basis whether to provide coverage if CNN was barred from the pool again, according to The New York Times.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
