White House security blocked MSNOW and CNN reporters from entering the grounds Saturday morning as President Donald Trump’s ban on three news outlets took effect.MSNOW reporter Akayla Gardner said her White House press pass would not scan at the press entrance.
A security officer then ordered her to surrender the badge as she tried to pass through magnetometers. Gardner said the officer told her the decision was “above him.” An MSNOW photographer also had a press badge confiscated.
The ban does not stop the outlets from covering Trump, but it cuts off the White House access reporters use to question the president and speak with administration officials.
🚨 NEW: White House’s ban on MS Now just came into operation!
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 19, 2026
Here's MS NOW reporter @gardnerakayla describing how
she was denied access at the White House this morning. Her badge didn't work.
"The officer asked me to hand over my badge. He said that it was disabled. I asked…
MSNOW said it “intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.” The network added that the White House belongs to the American people and that decisions made there are funded by taxpayers.
CNN said the ban is “an illegal assault” on its constitutional right to report without government interference and that it will keep covering the administration “without fear or favor.”Democrats and First Amendment advocates immediately criticized the policy.
Trump himself, speaking to reporters Friday, called the action a “ban on the free press.”
In the 1977 case Sherrill v. Knight, a federal appeals court held that the White House cannot arbitrarily deny press passes based on the content of coverage once it has opened its facilities to the press.
The episode fits a longer pattern: Trump has often attacked individual reporters and outlets over coverage he considers unfair. In his second term, he has also invited nontraditional conservative commentators into the briefing room and Oval Office to question him.