White House excludes Politico from Air Force One travel press pool

Politico was notified Oct. 4, 2026, that it would be excluded from traveling with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One the following day. The publication was scheduled to serve as the primary print representative in the White House travel pool for Trump’s campaign trip to Nebraska.

The print pool typically travels with the president and distributes notes and updates with the broader press corps.

The White House offered the open seat to other news organizations that regularly rotate through the travel pool, but they declined, CNN reported. It marked the first time in recent years that the president traveled without a primary print pool reporter, according to The Washington Post.

The Post, which had already been assigned a secondary print seat, continued with its scheduled role and sent occasional updates to the wider press corps. CBS, the designated television pool representative, also agreed to share its notes with print outlets under the unusual circumstances.

“Neither news organization is replacing Politico,” Josh Gross of CBS News wrote in an internal email, according to CNN.

The move is the latest escalation in a dispute between the Trump administration and several news organizations over access to the president. On Sept. 18, Trump announced that he was “banning” Politico, CNN and MS NOW from the White House. The news organizations sued, arguing the decision violated the First and Fifth amendments.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly agreed and issued a temporary restraining order requiring the administration to restore the journalists’ White House press badges.

The administration has nevertheless continued to restrict the outlets’ access to presidential travel. The White House barred CNN from traveling aboard Air Force One on days when the network was scheduled to serve as the television pool representative.

A White House spokesperson told CNN that the outlets remain free to cover presidential events independently but argued that traveling aboard Air Force One is different.

“Many outlets including Politico are granted access to attend and cover presidential events unilaterally, but traveling with the President of the United States aboard Air Force One is a privilege not a right,” the spokesperson said.

Trump made a similar distinction in an interview with Time magazine, saying that allowing the outlets access to the White House grounds, as required by Kelly’s order, was different from allowing them into the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One.

Trump also defended the restrictions in a Sept. 21 post on Truth Social.

“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” he wrote.

Theodore Boutrous, the attorney for three news outlets suing over the access restrictions, told CNN in a statement that it’s critical the White House be barred from enforcing what he described as an unconstitutional ban on a free press.

“The law is absolutely clear. The harm to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound,” Boutrous said.