US judge orders Trump to lift White House ban against CNN, MS NOW & Politico

A federal judge has ruled that former U.S. President Donald Trump must lift his ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico journalists from accessing the White House. District Judge Tim Kelly issued the order on September 24, following a lawsuit filed by the three media outlets. The outlets argued that the ban violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and free press.

Judge Kelly dismissed the government's claim that the ban was necessary for national security, stating that there was no factual evidence to support this assertion. The judge ordered the Trump administration to return the outlets' press passes immediately and not to enforce the ban for a period of 14 days. Trump had originally banned the outlets on September 18, citing their alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity in their reporting.

The ban led to the immediate revocation of the outlets' credentials by the White House, prompting the media organizations to file a lawsuit against Trump. The three outlets had previously faced a ban in February 2025 for refusing to refer to the "Gulf of Mexico" as the "Gulf of America" following Trump's announcement of the name change in January of the same year.