A federal judge on Monday declined to immediately restore the Associated Press’s access to certain White House events, such as Oval Office meetings and Air Force One press pools, granting the Trump administration a temporary victory.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, whose jurisdiction lies in Washington, D.C., found that the prominent news organization did not suffer any irreparable harm, although he did urge the Trump administration to reconsider its AP ban pending litigation. The judge is concerned the ban may amount to viewpoint discrimination, considering the White House singled out the AP.
The initial move comes days after the AP sued three White House officials — Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — for barring its reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and Mar-a-Lago. The legal dispute stemmed from the news outlet’s refusal to acknowledge the “Gulf of America,” formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to rename the body of water. Google eventually updated the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for American users online.
The AP, however, refused to go along with the name change after the organization was warned earlier this month that its reporters and photographers would lose special media access to certain presidential events.
In its lawsuit, the news agency argues that the ban violates its free speech rights protected under the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration counters the plaintiff’s argument by saying that access to the president is a privilege rather than a constitutional right.
The restriction is said to target the AP’s influential stylebook, which has shaped certain language in the mainstream media with a left-leaning bent. For example, the updated stylebook refers to transgender medical procedures and treatments as “gender-affirming care” and uses “sex assigned at birth” instead of biological sex.
The AP still refers to the Gulf of America as the Gulf of Mexico, citing its global audience as the primary reason for keeping the original name. Despite its battle over the body of water, the organization does recognize Mount McKinley in accordance with Trump’s executive order because the Alaskan mountain, previously known as Denali, lies solely within the country.
“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump declared at Mar-a-Lago last week. “We’re very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America.”
Although American AP journalists remain banned for now, a reporter for the AP’s Paris bureau got the opportunity to ask Trump a question during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House on Monday.
The White House celebrated the judge’s action, putting up “victory” signs featuring a map of the Gulf of America in the White House press briefing room.
“As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House said in a statement.
“We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press. This is the most transparent Administration in history.”
Judge McFadden, whom Trump appointed in 2017, will preside over the case’s next hearing on March 20.