Arabic version: البيت الأبيض يستبعد CNN مجدداً من المجموعة الصحفية المتناوبة

According to The Guardian, the White House again blocked CNN from covering President Donald Trump as part of the rotating press pool. CNN had been scheduled to travel with Trump to Texas and Oklahoma, but was removed from the list of newsrooms assigned to the trip.

The move came after Timothy Kelly, a federal judge appointed by Trump, issued a temporary restraining order against the administration’s ban on CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House. The block remains in place until 8 October. CNN was also prevented from traveling on Air Force One to provide pool coverage over the weekend.

In a wide-ranging Time magazine interview, Trump said he was not defying the judge’s order by preventing the outlets from covering him at certain events. “I don’t have to go out of my way, these people write only bad stories,” he said. Trump also described Kelly as “very anti-Trump,” before acknowledging that he had appointed the judge during his first term.

White House communications director Steven Cheung said the order required the president to restore the newsrooms’ access to the White House, but distinguished that access from allowing the pool into events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One. The dispute follows ongoing litigation over the Associated Press’s access to those spaces after Trump banned the outlet last year for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”