CNN barred from Trump’s Air Force One flight

CNN claimed in an Oct. 28, 2026, court filing that the White House engaged in retaliation and constitutional violations when it repeatedly booted the outlet from Air Force One.

The amended complaint was filed as part of CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s ongoing litigation combating a September ban from the White House complex. The filing argued that bumping CNN and Politico journalists from Air Force One infringed on the outlets’ First Amendment and due process rights.

The outlets asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction against bans from the aircraft, the Oval Office and “other presidential events designated for pool coverage while performing their press pool duties.”

CNN had been denied access to the aircraft at least five times since a federal judge on Sept. 24 ordered the administration to temporarily suspend its wholesale ban on the three outlets at the White House complex.

Each time CNN was excluded, it had been slated to fulfill TV pool responsibilities covering President Donald Trump’s out-of-town campaign trips. The network was given little notice and no explanations as to why it had been removed from the aircraft’s list of approved travelers.

Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., one of the lawyers representing the three outlets, wrote to Department of Justice officials Oct. 19 warning of further legal action if the aircraft denials persisted. The amended complaint indicated that the letter went unanswered, and indeed, CNN was booted twice more, on Oct. 21 and Oct. 26.

The filing argues that the repeated denials represent a de facto continuation of Trump’s desire to ban the outlets because he disliked their coverage, despite the judge’s earlier order.

“These exclusions reflect an unstated policy to carry out the President’s directive to take his viewpoint-discriminatory and retaliatory ban ‘as far as you can,’” the filing read.

White House officials have previously argued that the president can exclude journalists at times.

“The judge basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House, but that’s different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told Time magazine.

The amended filing addressed this point directly, contending that the exclusions were motivated by viewpoint discrimination.

“To be clear, Plaintiffs do not claim an unrestricted right to enter the Oval Office or travel aboard Air Force One,” it said, adding, “But once the White House opens those spaces to selected journalists for newsgathering and reporting, the White House may not exclude Plaintiffs because it dislikes their coverage.”

Reporters from CNN were bumped from Air Force One once again, as they sought to accompany President Donald Trump on a planned campaign trip to South Carolina on Oct. 21, 2026.

The network was designated to fulfill TV pool responsibilities for covering the president’s in-town and out-of-town appearances, according to CNN’s Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. However, the White House Press Office left the outlet off the list for the trip that day, the journalist reported.

The block, the latest in a series amid a broader legal battle over the outlet’s access to the White House, came two days after an attorney for CNN wrote an Oct. 19 letter to Justice Department officials condemning the repeated bans.

“These efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” wrote Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., who is also representing Politico and MS NOW in the three networks’ efforts to permanently regain access to the White House complex.

Boutrous added that he was giving the administration until 5 p.m. on Oct. 22 to confirm in writing that it would cease barring the outlet from Air Force One.

“If these actions persist,” he wrote, “CNN will have no choice but to return to the court to defend its rights, and it is prepared to fight as long as is necessary to secure them.”

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 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 J. Boutrous Jr., 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.”