The White House barred Politico from traveling on Air Force One Monday, drawing a hard line that press access to the president is a privilege, not a constitutional right.
The move blocked the outlet from its scheduled duties as the print pool reporter for President Donald Trump’s trip to Grand Island, Nebraska, escalating the legal fight over who controls access and signaling that the corporate media's monopoly on the presidential ear is over.
Politico confirmed it was excluded from the out-of-town travel pool and declined further comment, referring to its legal filings. The White House also declined to comment.
The ban builds on Trump’s September announcement banning Politico, CNN, and MS NOW from the White House, accusing the outlets of publishing “FAKE NEWS” and “FICTION and LIES.” The outlets sued, arguing the government cannot punish the press for its reporting. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered the administration to restore the outlets' press passes, ruling the White House likely violated their due process rights.
HuffPost framed the access fight as an escalation of Trump’s “war on the First Amendment,” but the Constitution protects the press from government censorship—it does not guarantee a seat on a military aircraft.
The Justice Department fired back in a Friday filing, arguing that restoring a hard pass does not entitle the outlets to access every restricted setting, including the Oval Office or Air Force One. The government argued Trump determined the outlets published stories that “adversely affect national security” and that restricting access removes an avenue for them to obtain information the administration considers harmful. The media organizations dispute that justification.
The broader clash between the president and the press was on full display elsewhere. Raw Story reported that when pressed by reporters to provide evidence for his claims of mail-in voting fraud in California, Trump walked away, telling them, “You are fake news!”
HuffPost noted that CNN was previously left off an Air Force One trip to Tennessee, replaced by what the outlet described as a “far-right outlet” for “fawning coverage.” The establishment press may frame these exclusions as an assault on democracy, but for working Americans, the real question is why corporate outlets ever assumed they had an irrevocable right to the president’s plane.
The corporate press is now demanding the courts force their way back onto Air Force One. The open question is whether a judge will invent a constitutional right to a taxpayer-funded plane ticket.
