President Trump celebrated a “big win” Friday as a federal appeals court ruled that his administration can ban the Associated Press from entering the Oval Office and other restricted areas amid its ongoing legal spat with the outlet over the Gulf of America.
The White House can now restrict the wire service from the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and Air Force One, per a split 2-1 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
“Big WIN over AP today,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“They refused to state the facts or the Truth on the GULF OF AMERICA. FAKE NEWS!!!”
The court ruled Friday that certain White House spaces aren’t open to the public or large press pools – effectively giving officials the power to decide which journalists and outlets get access, CNN reported.
The decision comes after a lower court judge blocked the administration from restricting the AP from privileged areas where the press is typically allowed.
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision and are reviewing our options,” a spokesperson for the Associated Press told the outlet.
The legal dispute erupted in February when the White House barred the outlet from the Oval Office in response to the agency’s refusal to update its style guide to reflect Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
The AP, which manages the media’s go-to style guide “Associated Press Stylebook,” argued the large ocean basin has been called the Gulf of Mexico for “more than 400 years” and other international groups have not acknowledged the change.
“VICTORY! As we’ve said all along, the Associated Press is not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in other sensitive locations,” White House press secretary Karoline Levitt posted to X following the ruling.
“Thousands of other journalists have never been afforded the opportunity to cover the President in these privileged spaces. Moving forward, we will continue to expand access to new media so that more people can cover the most transparent President in American history rather than just the failing legacy media.
“And by the way @AP, it’s still the Gulf of America.”
Hundreds of reporters have a so-called “hard pass” which allows access to the White House briefing room and press working area.
A second, more limited group of journalists — referred to as the pool — is granted access to more intimate or restricted events with greater opportunity to ask the president face-to-face questions.
The pool used to be decided by the White House Correspondents Association, until the Trump administration took it over to hand-pick which journalists they could add to — or remove from — the pool.
The AP previously had access to the president’s limited events every day alongside fellow wires Reuters and Bloomberg.
Now only one wire service is allowed in the pool each day.
