Trump says "somebody has a right to keep them away if they're going to write false stories all the time"
President of the United States, answering reporters' questions at an Oval Office event on health care
“No, but I think it's good. I think it's good to point it out whether it survives or doesn't. I mean, I don't think a court should allow, depends on the judge you get, to be honest with you. I don't think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day. I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they're going to write false stories all the time.”
Source and context
Original video
About this source
Official White House video of the President's health-care event in the Oval Office on September 18, 2026, which began at about 3:38 PM EDT and ran 56 minutes. YouTube auto-captions garble words in this video (they render "bans" as "bands"), so the audio was transcribed with whisper large-v3-turbo and the quoted passage checked against that transcript. Transcription adds punctuation but no words.
Before the quotation
A reporter asked about the exclusion of the three outlets after Trump's 3:04 PM EDT post, noting that in his first term he had tried a similar move against CNN and it "didn't survive a court challenge".
After the quotation
Later in the event Trump said "So we are banning them. Yes, we are" and that "there may be others to follow", and called The New York Times and The Washington Post fake news.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Should President Trump bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over their coverage?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case's fixed reference point is President Trump's announcement on September 18, 2026 that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from the White House because of their coverage, as reaffirmed in the Oval Office that afternoon. Trump defends the act directly and on legal grounds, saying it is worth doing whether or not a court upholds it and that outlets can be kept away if they write false stories. The closest competing label is mixed_or_conditional, because he says "whether it survives or doesn't" and "depends on the judge you get". That loses because those phrases concern the litigation outcome, not his position on the exclusion, which he affirms.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- CNN, MS NOW, Politico
Should President Trump bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over their coverage?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full caseMS NOW
“MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.”Read statement
The White House
“The White House declined to comment further Saturday, referring NBC News to Trump’s previous comments.”Read statement
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“When the White House opens its doors to the press, it must comply with the First Amendment. The president is as free as any other person to criticize media coverage. But he can’t ban outlets from the White House just because he doesn’t like their reporting or commentary.”Read statement