CNN left out of Air Force One media pool for Trump’s latest trip

Outlet had been scheduled to fly with Donald Trump to Tennessee for a college football game, network said Friday

CNN had provided coverage of the state visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping (AP)

The White House has signalled that the CNN news network would be left off Air Force One for US president Donald Trump’s trip to a college football game on Saturday.

The move marks the latest media restriction from the US administration in an ongoing dispute with implications for the First Amendment to the American constitution, which protects the freedom of the press.

CNN was replaced by Real America’s Voice, a conservative network, for the president’s trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, according to White House guidance.

Mr Trump is scheduled to attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at midday on Saturday (5pm BST).

The news came just after journalists from CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, which Mr Trump banned last week from the White House grounds, returned to the executive complex with TV cameras in hand after a judge handed the organisations a reprieve.

US district judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early on Thursday, but his decision addressed “hard passes” to the White House grounds and did not directly address media pool duties.

The judge’s temporary order also said nothing directly about Air Force One.

Theodore Boutrous Jr, the news outlets’ lawyer, did not immediately respond to an email and phone call from The Associated Press requesting comment on Friday night.

Earlier on Friday, on The Lead With Jake Tapper, Mr Boutrous had said the plaintiffs believe the recent court ruling also covers the issue of pool access.

For a while during the day, the US network video pool for the White House was back in operation for the first time since Mr Trump banned the three news outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.

At noon on CNN, viewers could see Mr Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping touring the US National Archives, along with first lady Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Mr Xi’s wife.

The banner along the bottom of the screen read: “Trump and China’s Xi Visit National Archives.” 

It was a routine report from a state visit – except that CNN had not aired live video of Mr Trump in several days.

“As of now, all systems are go,” said a person familiar with the pool.

The pool consists of five major US broadcast outlets that take turns shooting and sharing video. When the White House banned CNN – which belongs to the pool – from White House grounds, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers declined to participate in a show of solidarity.

The spot meant for CNN on this flight has long been saved for a member of the US network video pool, which Real America’s Voice is not currently a part of.

Brian Stelter, CNN’s media analyst, posted on X that the network had a pool assignment at the US National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials.

Throughout his second term, Mr Trump has increasingly targeted media outlets whose coverage irritates him, taking administrative or legal action against several.

Early last year, he banished AP reporters from White House events because the organisation was not abiding by his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”. The AP’s guidance says to acknowledge the new name when relevant.

The case is on appeal after a federal district judge ruled in AP’s favour.

The press pool was created decades ago by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a group of journalists who cover the president, to make sure a rotating roster always travels with the president.

The pool distributes in-person reports and imagery to the broader press corps and is designed to hold the nation’s chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public.