At 1:46 this afternoon, the President of the United States stepped out of the White House to a drumroll and applause as he made his way toward the red, white, and blue ribbons stretched across the pathway to Trump’s new helipad for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. With oversized gold-plated scissors, Donald Trump and two other men, their hands touching, cut through the ribbons together. The entire ceremony lasted less than three minutes, with Donald Trump yelling over the sound of helicopter engines roaring right behind him. Yet not a single word he said could be heard across the live video of the event because, in all of Donald Trump’s wisdom, he decided to ban members of the free press from the White House, and once again, the ramifications of his own actions caught up to him.
After Donald Trump banned multiple news organizations from the White House last Friday afternoon and added: “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow” to the announcement, the cards started to fall for him.
By this morning, all three outlets he had banned in his initial round had filed a 27-page federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Their joint statement said the following: “This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes. Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
In the lawsuit documents, they laid it all out: “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.” It goes further: “The President banned CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, and the individual reporters covering the news for those media organizations, in disregard of the most basic guarantees of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause. He did so expressly for the improper purpose of retaliating against Plaintiffs for past news coverage because he deemed it ‘negative’ and chilling future reporting.”
And this is where Donald Trump started to panic. He posted a very long and rambling response to their lawsuit on Truth Social that started with: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer on our Country.” He continued with: “Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World.”
He even attacked the judge assigned to the case, whom he appointed to the bench. It is the same one, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who ruled in CNN’s favor back in 2018 when he tried to ban another journalist and was unsuccessful. Trump wrote: “They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet.”
But the story took a dramatic turn. Something that has needed to happen for over a year and a half now. The press finally pushed back in a united front. CNN had been scheduled to operate the pool camera on Monday and Tuesday, which means that they were the ones in charge of filming and then sharing the footage with the other outlets. The television pool is a long-standing, decades-old arrangement among five of the top networks, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC. This is how we see what is happening inside the White House and why the angles and filming can often look different from day to day. It is not just a practical arrangement for the networks, but it also keeps them all honest, per se, because no single network controls the camera and the footage every day.
After the White House deactivated the press badges of those three organizations over the weekend when their reporters attempted to access the White House grounds, it became clear that CNN would be unable to fulfill its scheduled pool duty starting today. That forced the other four networks to make a decision about what they were going to do so that there would still be footage for their reporting this week. They could use a replacement crew from one of the networks still allowed by President Trump, which would have meant that Trump now had his answer about how far he could push this, or they could refuse and let there be no coverage. It couldn’t have been an easy decision because that coverage really is important. But they realized that pushing back now would be less painful than them all being banned and replaced by his preferred networks in very short order.
When push came to shove, they all agreed to refuse to provide a replacement. Even Fox News. Its Washington bureau chief, Bryan Boughton, who also serves as the chair of the television pool, personally sent the notice himself: “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
The five networks then did something else that we haven’t seen in a long time, if ever: they issued a joint statement. “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Jacqui Heinrich, who is also a Fox News senior White House correspondent, also issued her own statement: “The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a ‘ban on the free press.’ The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.” She also added: “The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future.”
She is saying what so many of us already know about Donald Trump, and it’s not just limited to what is happening with the press. Everything he does is a test to see who pushes back and how hard. He is looking to see how far he can take his assault on our country and the Constitution. What she was saying is that this will not stop with CNN, MS NOW, or Politico. He will remove every network and reporter that he finds “negative” in their reporting of him. He already went after FOX News just last week for not being loyal enough. She knows that this decision not to replace the CNN crew was about way more than taking a stand for the First Amendment. It was also a strategic business decision on her part.
That is why Fox News stood with CNN today. There wasn’t some sudden discovery of a deep commitment to journalistic solidarity, and that needs to be said. It is very important that this finally happened, but it does not erase the role Fox News has played over the years in eroding the line between what is real and true and what is entertainment and propaganda. But even they know that Trump holds loyalty to no one, and this was an act of self-preservation at its finest. Fox also did some basic math. Donald Trump has gone after them before. The only reason Fox has ever felt a level of safety is because he still considered them useful. That can and will change. In this moment, why they did it matters less than the fact that they did. Because when the network that has benefited most from this president’s madness says, “This threatens us too,” it tells us all exactly how dangerous this moment really is.
This wasn’t the only thing the Trump Regime rolled out today. Earlier today, the White House social media account started posting teaser clips from their latest project. One showed an old television set with text that said, “Something’s coming. Stay tuned.” They also posted an AI video of a satellite truck driving through the White House gates. And then at 7 PM, the White House made the final reveal they had been teasing about all day. They launched “Trump TV: The Essentials Station” on its YouTube channel. They described it like this: “Watch the Trump Administration’s biggest moments all in one place. Top videos, major remarks, and must-see highlights streaming 24/7 and updated in real time. Stay informed and stay up to date!” The first thing they chose to post was a two-month-old speech Donald Trump gave at Mount Rushmore on July 3rd. The president attacked the First Amendment and denied the press the access needed to carry out their jobs, and then used taxpayer dollars to produce and distribute propaganda and disinformation.
Kaelan Dorr, a deputy assistant to the president, described it on X as a “livestream of the Administration’s greatest hits, unfiltered.” Which is absolutely not what it is, and just saying that in and of itself shows how dangerous this all is. It frames legitimate journalism, the act of independent reporting, asking questions, verifying facts, and challenging official statements, as the problem. It makes the American public think that they are being lied to by the press and that the government is the truth-teller here.
When I was watching this play out today, I was trying to imagine if Barack Obama had banned Fox News from the White House. Or if Joe Biden had confiscated the credentials of Fox reporters, like Trump did to CNN, and then launched “Biden TV” on the official White House website. What if either of them had told the American public they could no longer go to their preferred news sources to know what was happening inside their own government and instead had to get their news directly from the government? Every Republican in Congress would have been on camera within the hour calling it tyranny and demanding congressional hearings and impeachment proceedings. Every conservative commentator in the country would have been screaming about the death of the First Amendment and how their rights were being violated. It would have been the only story in America for weeks, and rightfully so.
Of course there are Democrats, historians, and scholars speaking out. Representative Jamie Raskin called on the news media to boycott the White House entirely if Trump “keeps violating press freedom.” Senator Elizabeth Warren said Trump was trying to “hide his failures.” But the question I keep coming back to is: where are the Republicans? Where is the other half of Congress? The First Amendment belongs to every American. The job of the press is not to make any president look good. The press exists to hold power accountable. That is the entire reason it is protected by the Constitution and why freedom of the press was enshrined in the First Amendment. It was so important that it was protected from the very beginning.
What Donald Trump is doing is what fascist regimes have always done, and it is what communist regimes have always done. It is also what authoritarian governments have done throughout history. The names are different, but the playbook they follow in regard to the press is very much the same. They discredit independent media, especially those who speak the truth and do not tailor their coverage to appease the strongman in charge. They call the press the enemy of the people. They restrict access and replace the existing press and media with state-produced and state-controlled content that praises the leader and erases dissent. The Nazis built the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to exert control over what the German public read, heard, and saw. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist, subsidized a cheap radio called the Volksempfänger, translated as the “People’s Receiver.” He made sure it was affordable so that German households could receive state broadcasts directly into their homes. What the White House is trying to do is create the Volksempfänger of 2026.
These are desperate times for the Trump Regime, and that is why we are seeing such desperate moves on their part. Today there was a new poll from American Research Group that shows just how much trouble they are in. It found that Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen below 30% for the first time ever, including in either of his two terms. 29% of Americans approve of the job he is doing. 68% disapprove. In news that is not surprising at all, it also showed that his approval on the economy is even lower, at 26%, and 72% of Americans say the economy is getting worse. The last time a sitting president’s approval was in the 20s was with George W. Bush at the end of 2008, during the Great Recession.
But today also showed us something else. Pushing back matters, and it is starting to come from unexpected places. Donald Trump’s desperation and bad outlook ahead of the midterms are making him sloppy. Five competing networks, some with very different interests, were confronted with a choice, and when it mattered, they stood together and said no. That is how we get through this dangerous time for our country. We have to resist at every chance we get because pushing back is the only thing that stops strongmen like him, even if sometimes it means he can’t talk on video and has to yell into the sound of a helicopter while none of us can hear him. Every time someone pushes back and reminds him that ultimately we, the people, hold the power, not him, we get closer to this nightmare ending. And today we got to see what happens when people who have the power to say no actually use it. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
PS. You can make a significant difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. Your support helps me cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in this country.
This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: We haven’t been able to take our normal daily walk this past week, but we made it down to the beach a bit late this afternoon to just enjoy the sound of the waves. This is my favorite time of year. We call it local summer because the crowds are mostly gone and the weather is just perfect. Warm without being too hot, with a cool breeze. I often forget how healing time by the ocean can be.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Participates in a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: YouTube Video
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/21/politics/cnn-politico-msnow-sue-white-house-access
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/21/trump-white-house-pool-tv-ban-audio
https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-launches-trump-tv-amid-media-ban-what-we-know-12470372
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-12467727
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-announces-white-house-ban-three-media-outlets
The other heart breaking point is the bloody helipad he is so thrilled with replaced Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden. The man is a heathen
Well said. The Orange Loser just keeps making things worse for himself and the candidates with R after their names. Keep up the good work, trumpet!