A judge refused to grant the Associated Press access to the White House press pool on Monday, two weeks after the administration banned the outlet following disputes over renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump appointee Trevor McFadden denied the AP’s motion for a temporary restraining order because, he said, the AP had not demonstrated it is suffering “irreparable harm.”
The White House began banning AP reporters from Oval Office and East Room events about two weeks ago, following the AP’s refusal to adopt Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. AP’s motion, filed Feb. 11 against Trump White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, argued that the administration’s ban was a violation of the First Amendment.
Despite McFadden’s ruling on Monday, the judge noted that he will consider a request for a preliminary injunction, and advised the Trump administration to reconsider their position. “Case law in this circuit is uniformly unhelpful to the White House,” McFadden said, adding that the administration’s choice to target one organization could “seem problematic.”
Per the initial complaint, Wiles emailed the AP on Feb. 18 saying that their attention was focused on the AP in particular because its Stylebook “is used by many as a standard for writing and editing.” The email ended with Wiles sayings “we remain hopeful that the name of the [Gulf] will be appropriately reflected in the Stylebook where American audiences are concerned.”
In a statement, the AP said they had decided to refer to the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen” per its guidelines that “[a]s a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”
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