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WASHINGTON — The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Friday against three top Trump administration officials challenging its ban from the White House press pool for ignoring the president’s formal renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
The wire service, which has been barred from Air Force One and Oval Office events for 10 days after declining to update its influential style guide to say “Gulf of America,” argues in the suit against White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and deputy chief of staff for communications Taylor Budowich that its due process and First Amendment rights are being trampled.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the lawsuit says.
The due process claim could pave the way for a temporary injunction that would require the White House to return the AP to its former position.
In Trump’s first term, preliminary injunctions citing due process swiftly returned press badges to journalists Jim Acosta and Brian Karem after they were yanked for refusing to relinquish a microphone at a press conference and for exchanging heated words with a political guest in the Rose Garden, respectively.
It’s unclear if the First Amendment argument would prevail in the end — as access to the press pool is historically a bureaucratic matter decided upon by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) and administration officials. Outlets are not automatically eligible for such access.
Associated Press reporters have long enjoyed much closer access to presidents than journalists from other publications because they are deemed a “wire” service — alongside Reuters and Bloomberg.
All three outlets are given seats on all Air Force One trips, attend each Oval Office pool spray and are present at all events open to press when presidents either travel or remain at the White House.
Most other print news outlets, including The Post and the New York Times, get only one opportunity a month to serve as a representative as the in-town White House press pool that interacts with the president.
Non-wire outlets granted access to the traveling press pool similarly have far fewer opportunities for Air Force One trips, sharing a seat with more than a dozen other outlets rather than having a permanent spot.
The AP’s due process argument contends it lacked an opportunity to challenge the ban before it was enacted.
“Defendants gave the AP no prior or written notice of, and no formal opportunity to challenge, their arbitrary determination,” the lawsuit says.
The AP’s exclusion has broadly concerned news outlets and attempts to privately talk through the differences with Trump administration officials have been unsuccessful.
Trump said Tuesday that he personally approved of the exclusion.
“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Fla.
Leavitt began her tenure as press secretary last month vowing to bolster press freedom by restoring about 400 press badges that the Biden administration revoked under a policy designed to screen out eccentric independent journalists.
She also inaugurated a 50th briefing room press seat that would be occupied by a rotating group of “new media” representatives and journalists from outlets without a permanent seat.
The White House has not moved to strip the AP of its prime seat in the front and center of the briefing room — despite concern that the new administration would unilaterally rework seat assignments, which by historical deference are decided by the WHCA.
Other administrations have taken actions similar to Trump’s with regard to punishment of news outlets.
The Obama administration, for example, attempted to boot Fox News out of the TV rotation for the press pool, but relented when other networks threatened to boycott their participation.
The Biden administration aggressively screened journalists allowed into large events that previously were open to all reporters on campus, such as events in the Rose Garden, East Room and an auditorium in the next-door Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The Biden restrictions barred The Post, which had reported heavily on the president’s involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings, from such events for seven months — with officials sometimes citing space constraints before leaving two dozen press seats empty.
Those restrictions were relaxed but never fully scrapped after advocacy from the WHCA and a protest letter from journalists.
The AP’s stance has significant support among journalists who cover the White House, who fear a precedent likely to be wielded into the future — with outlets including Fox News and Newsmax signing onto a recent protest letter and the leadership of several outlets that endorsed Trump also voicing concern.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
