White House bars CNN from travelling with Trump on Air Force One

CNN has been removed from the list of journalists permitted to fly aboard Air Force One with President Donald Trump for a weekend trip to Tennessee, according to BBC News.

The network had originally been included on the schedule to accompany Trump on Saturday for a college football matchup between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. However, a media schedule released by the White House on Friday night omitted CNN from the roster, with no other outlet named in its place, CNN itself reported.

The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment from the BBC regarding the decision.

This latest exclusion follows a broader dispute between the Trump administration and several news organizations. Last week, Trump revoked White House access for reporters from CNN, Politico and MS NOW, claiming their coverage of his administration amounted to "fiction or lies," according to BBC News. All three outlets have said they intend to pursue legal action, arguing the bans infringe on their constitutional rights to free speech and a free press.

In response, four networks that regularly rotate through daily White House coverage alongside CNN — ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC — temporarily halted their broadcasts of the president as a show of solidarity with the barred outlets, per the BBC report.

Around the same time, the White House introduced its own streaming service, referred to as Trump TV, which launched ahead of the United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York.

The standoff took a legal turn when a federal judge determined that excluding the news organizations from White House access was likely unconstitutional, ordering the administration to restore their entry, at least on a temporary basis, according to BBC News.

Despite that ruling, some friction persisted. On Thursday, during arrivals for a state dinner honoring Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the White House still denied entry to certain reporters from CNN and MS NOW who had been assigned to cover the event, the BBC reported.

A White House communications account posted on the social media platform X defending the restrictions, stating that news organizations do not have unrestricted access to every area, event, or press briefing at the White House, dismissing criticism as coming from what it called the "Fake News."

By Friday, regular television coverage of the president had resumed after officials granted reporters renewed entry to the White House, according to the BBC.

The Tennessee trip, where Trump is expected to attend the football game beginning at midday Saturday, marks the newest instance in the ongoing tension between the administration and members of the press corps over access to the president and his events.