The White House is blocking Politico from Air Force One on Monday, arguing a court order on press badges does not cover the presidential plane.
President Donald Trump is slated to fly to Nebraska for a campaign stop Monday afternoon, and Politico was next in line as the print representative in the out-of-town travel pool. The White House refused the seat anyway, a Politico spokesperson confirmed, leaving the outlet unable to carry out its pool duties.
CNN reported that the administration has drawn a bright line: restored access to the White House complex is not the same as a guaranteed spot in tight spaces such as Air Force One or the Oval Office. That distinction now sits at the center of a fast-moving First Amendment fight.
On September 18, Trump announced he was “banning” Politico, CNN, and MS NOW from the White House. Three days later, the outlets sued, claiming the move violated the First and Fifth Amendments.
Judge Timothy J. Kelly sided with the plaintiffs and issued a temporary restraining order. The order required the Trump administration to reinstate the journalists’ press badges. A hearing on a broader preliminary injunction is set for Thursday.
The White House has not treated that badge order as an open ticket onto the presidential aircraft. It has repeatedly kept CNN off Air Force One on days when CNN held the television pool slot. Monday’s action against Politico follows the same pattern on the print side.
Last week, TIME reporters asked Trump whether he was ignoring the court order. He said no. Communications director Steven Cheung spelled out the administration’s reading of the ruling.
Cheung said:
"The judge basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House, but that’s different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One."
That is the legal and practical claim the White House is pressing: credentials to enter the complex are one thing; limited seats on the plane and in the Oval are another.
The presidential travel pool is a small group of reporters who move with the president so the wider press corps gets a shared account of what happens on the trip. When the White House locked Politico out, it offered the seat to other news organizations that routinely rotate through the pool.
Several publications declined. A Sunday night guidance email to the press corps listed no news outlets traveling with the president. Cheung did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the Politico exclusion.
The empty seat underlines how contested the arrangement has become. Outlets that usually take turns in the pool chose not to fill a slot the White House opened after barring the outlet whose turn it was.
Ted Boutrous, the attorney representing Politico, CNN, and MS NOW, framed the dispute as a direct assault on press freedom and public accountability.
Boutrous said:
"The law is absolutely clear. The harm to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound."
He pressed the court to keep the administration’s restrictions off the board.
Boutrous added:
"It is critical that the White House is enjoined to keep this unconstitutional ban on the free press out of commission."
The plaintiffs want the temporary restraining order expanded into a preliminary injunction that would lock in broader access while the case proceeds. The White House wants the court to accept the complex-versus-plane distinction Cheung described.
This is not the first time the administration’s space-by-space approach has landed in court. The Associated Press has an ongoing lawsuit over a similar line after Trump sought to keep the wire service out of certain spaces last year. The core question is the same: how far a president can go in managing access to confined venues without running afoul of the First Amendment.
Judge Kelly’s Thursday hearing will test whether badge reinstatement already answered that question or whether Air Force One and Oval Office pool access remain separate calls. The outlets argue the ban is unconstitutional root and branch. The White House argues the court order restored complex access and nothing more.
Monday’s Nebraska trip puts the dispute in concrete terms. Politico’s print pool turn arrived. The seat was refused. Other organizations were offered the spot and several passed. The plane still leaves with the president, and the legal fight continues on the ground.
A temporary order on press badges did not erase the White House’s authority to manage scarce seats on Air Force One, and taxpayers who fund that aircraft should not confuse court-ordered credentials with an unlimited right to every confined space the president uses.
