U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden has rejected an Associated Press (AP) emergency motion to restore their access to the White House press briefing room and Air Force One. Following the ruling, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, “The winning continues.”
The AP has been barred from White House and Air Force One access for nearly two weeks after the corporate media outlet refused to update its style guide to reflect President Donald J. Trump‘s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Notably, major tech companies that provide map and direction apps, like Apple and Google, have made the change. The AP remains an outlier in refusing to make the name change even among their corporate media colleagues.
“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, covering the American presidency—and the most intimate and limited spaces in this White House, in the Oval Office, on Air Force One—is a privilege,” Leavitt said following Judge McFadden’s ruling. “It is not a legal right.”
While Judge McFadden refused to grant temporary relief to the AP, he has set another hearing in the matter for March 20. The AP contends that the White House ban is an infringement on their First Amendment press rights and the requirement to use the Gulf of America is an infringement on their First Amendment speech rights.
The winning continues at the Trump White House after a federal judge ruled in our favor against the activist @AP.
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. pic.twitter.com/XJ3nDaJGoX
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 25, 2025