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Judge deals blow to AP legal action against Trump White House

February 25, 2025 | | Print Article

A federal judge has declined to restore immediate access to the Associated Press which has been banned from covering certain White House events due to its insistence on deadnaming the Gulf of America, a setback for the left-wing media organization.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden denied the AP’s request for a temporary restraining order that would allow its propagandists to cover President Donald J. Trump while its lawsuit plays out, the organization is claiming that its free speech rights have been violated because its privileges were revoked.

McFadden, a Trump appointee, said that the TRO was an “extraordinary remedy” that wasn’t granted because the AP didn’t show “irreparable harm” that would be caused by waiting for the trial and that AP’s waiting for a week to sue did not indicate a “dire situation” for the outlet, according to one reporter in the courtroom.

“I can’t say the AP has shown a likelihood of success here,” the judge said, although he did suggest that the organization may have better chances when the case goes to trial.

“As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House said in a statement after McFadden rejected the AP’s request.

“We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press,” the statement read. “This is the most transparent Administration in history.”

“The winning continues here at the White House,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News after the hearing. “Today, a federal judge right here in Washington, D.C. denied the Associated Press’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order to restore their privilege of returning to the White House press pool.”

“The judge’s denial of the Associated Press’s request reinforces what I said from the podium last week and what President Trump has been saying,” she continued. “Covering the American presidency in the most intimate and limited spaces in this White House, in the Oval Office, on the Air Force One is a privilege.”

“It is not a legal right, and we want all voices to have that opportunity and that’s why we’ve expanded the James S. Brady Briefing Room to invite truly legitimate independent journalists, podcasters, and other media types into that room to cover this president with honesty and accuracy and with real mindfulness of what the American people actually care about,” Leavitt said.

Also on Monday, leftists ground their teeth into nubs over a post to X by interim acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin who called out the AP for not putting America first.

“As President Trump’s lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first,” Martin wrote, triggering shrieks of outrage from the same people who enthusiastically cheered disgraced ex-President Joe Biden’s weaponizing of the Justice Department.

“The Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is and what has taken place, it’s called the ‘Gulf of America’ now,” Trump said at a press conference last week.

“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” the president added.

Chris Donaldson
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