Editorial: Donald Trump is right; the Associated Press has no First Amendment right to access the White House

President Donald Trump is the most transparent president in history — and he is right to ensure the Associated Press isn’t pushing misinformation about the Gulf of America before granting the AP privileged access to White House events.

The outrage over Trump’s actions obscures a critical reality: the AP continues to have access to the complex and has its seat at press briefings; Trump’s moves simply restricts its access to privileged spaces like the press pool and the Oval Office. Countless outlets across America would love to have even a fraction of the AP’s access to President Trump; is he denying their First Amendment by not having them credentialed? Of course not.

On a daily basis, President Trump shows his commitment to the First Amendment following four years of President Joe Biden, who held almost no press conferences and gave virtually no interviews to the press. In fact, Biden did fewer press conferences than his previous six predecessors.

Trump recently made the decision to restrict some of the AP’s access to his events, due to the outlet’s refusal to call the newly-named Gulf of America by its new name, even as liberal companies like Google and Apple are complying with Trump’s executive order. In response, the AP argues that this violates the First Amendment.

However, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled against the AP this week, refusing to order that the White House restore the AP’s access; this is a welcome ruling.

As a media outlet, the First Amendment is sacred to us — which makes the groupthink from so many purported journalists that have backed the AP up all the more disturbing. The AP is using Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of America as a smokescreen; this outlet, and many others, have had no problems baselessly, and at times inaccurately, renaming terms to suit their ideological agendas.

The AP’s embrace of Orwellian doublespeak goes back well over a decade; in 2013, it decided to cease using the term “illegal immigrant”; during the height of the riots of 2020, it amended its style guide to encourage journalists to not describe violent riots as “riots,” and to instead label them as “protests.”

The same press corps that spent years telling its dwindling readership that Biden was the most articulate orator since Cicero is now defending the nonexistent right of their fellow propagandists to show up and heckle Trump.

Is it possible that something else is at stake here? The old journalist exhortation to “follow the money” might explain the fervor here. What most Americans don’t understand is that the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), of which the AP is a member, has a functional monopoly on time with the President of the United States, which has proved quite lucrative for its members. By restricting the AP’s access, Trump is not minimizing transparency; he is simply cutting off a gravy train. In some respects, what Trump is DOGE-ing the White House press corps — and they’re not happy about it.

Space at White House events is a zero-sum game; there are no shortage of outlets and reporters hostile to Trump that he can and does call on; the AP’s presence fails to add any meaningful value — and this White House has nobly expanded the role of new and conservative media outlets, which languished in the cold for years under Biden — while this was an unfortunate development, it too was not a violation of the First Amendment.

For four years, journalists from outlets like Newsmax and the Daily Caller showed up at the White House, only to be ignored by Joe Biden, Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.

For four years, the AP and others in its orbit lied to the American people about Joe Biden — a president, who incidentally banned outlets like the New York Post from covering his events.

The AP and other liberal propaganda outlets have a First Amendment right to attack Trump all day long — and we defend their right to do so. The First Amendment provides freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It does not demand that the AP have the right to be in private spaces at the White House, nor does it shield them from criticism.

We support President Trump’s actions toward the Associated Press and hope that they continue.