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In a striking act of defiance against a federal court ruling, the Trump administration on Monday blocked The Associated Press from covering a White House meeting between President Donald Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—a move stemming from the AP’s refusal to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
The ban comes despite a court order issued last week by U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who ruled that the government cannot punish media outlets based on their editorial choices, citing “viewpoint discrimination” in violation of the First Amendment.
“We expect the White House to restore AP’s participation… as provided in the injunction order,” said AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton.
Yet Monday, an AP reporter and photographer were denied entry to the Oval Office, and only two AP photographers were later allowed to attend an unrelated South Lawn event honoring the Ohio State football team. A text reporter was again turned away.
What Sparked the Dispute?
The conflict erupted after Trump issued an executive order requesting that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America” in all federal communications. While the AP Stylebook acknowledged the president’s preference, it declined to enforce the naming convention across its reporting.
The Trump administration retaliated by barring AP journalists from key press events, including Oval Office gatherings and flights aboard Air Force One, beginning in mid-February.
In response, the AP filed a lawsuit, naming press secretary Karoline Leavitt and two other officials. Judge McFadden ruled in the AP’s favor last week, rejecting the administration’s arguments and ordering that no outlet be barred for refusing to comply with government-imposed language.
Still, the administration is appealing the decision, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear arguments on Thursday about delaying enforcement of the order.
“The AP may have grown accustomed to its favored status,” the administration said in court filings, “but the Constitution does not require that such status endure in perpetuity.”
Legal Experts Sound the Alarm
Free press advocates warn that the administration’s actions represent a grave threat to media freedom.
“The government cannot wield press access as a reward for obedience,” said a constitutional law expert at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “This is textbook retaliation.”
Judge McFadden’s ruling did not explicitly require that the AP be reinstated to the White House press pool, but it bars exclusion based on editorial viewpoint—an interpretation Trump’s team appears to be challenging by framing AP’s exclusion as a “logistical adjustment” rather than retaliation.
A Slippery Slope for Press Freedoms?
Until this conflict, the AP has long enjoyed standard access to Oval Office pool coverage—a status tied not to favoritism, but to its role as a nonpartisan wire service relied upon by newsrooms across the globe.
The incident fuels broader concerns over the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with the press, and its willingness to flout court orders to impose editorial pressure.
“Today it’s the AP. Tomorrow, it could be any outlet that refuses to toe the line,” warned a senior journalist at the White House Correspondents’ Association, calling the incident “deeply troubling.”
