The record
Incidents in the United States, head of government Donald Trump
Each incident is a dated action by a government, an official, a regulator, a court or a legislature that limited journalists' ability to gather or publish news.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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United States: White House hard-pass deactivations for CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters, September 2026
On September 18, 2026, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Truth Social, a social media platform, and in the Oval Office that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House, the president's office…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Customs officers seize Grayzone editor's phones at Virginia airport over Iran reporting
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at Washington Dulles Airport, questioned him about his reporting trips to Iran, and seized both of his phones without his consent; the phones were returned…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Appeals court orders FCC to respond to challenge over 'news distortion' policy
A bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission chairs, commissioners and the Radio Television Digital News Association petitioned a federal appeals court to force the FCC to act on a long-pending request to rescind its deca…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
White House closes 'Upper Press' section of West Wing to reporters
The White House began requiring reporters to make appointments before entering the 'Upper Press' area of the West Wing, home to the press secretary's and senior press aides' offices, citing a need to protect sensitive material after accusi…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: News organizations turn in their Pentagon press credentials, October 2025
Beginning on October 15, 2025, reporters from at least 30 news organizations vacated the press workspace at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, rather than sign the department's new credential pledge,…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025
On September 19, 2025, the United States Department of Defense, the federal department that provides the country's military forces, issued new credential rules for reporters at the Pentagon, its headquarters building, under the Secretary o…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025
On September 17, 2025, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the United States regulator of broadcasting, Brendan Carr, said broadcasters could "do this the easy way or the hard way" over remarks by the television ho…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Trump files, then refiles, $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times
President Trump sued The New York Times and four of its journalists for $15 billion over articles and a book published before the 2024 election; a judge dismissed the sprawling original complaint for violating basic pleading rules, and Tru…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger after CBS ombudsman and anti-DEI pledges
The Federal Communications Commission approved Paramount's sale to Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman to review complaints of bias at CBS News for two years and pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion progr…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein birthday letter story
President Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and two reporters for at least $10 billion, disputing the newspaper's report describing a bawdy letter he was said to have sent Jeffrey Epstein for a 2003 birthday albu…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Congress cuts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting
At President Trump's request, Congress passed a rescissions package clawing back roughly $1.1 billion already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating federal funding for NPR, PBS and their member stations.
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Paramount settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, July 2025
On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of the United States broadcaster CBS News, announced that it would settle for US$16 million a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, over how the CBS program 60 M…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Executive Order 14290 directing an end to federal funding for NPR and PBS, May 2025
On May 1, 2025, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed Executive Order 14290, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media." It directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit corporation cre…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
United States: Department of Justice rescission of rules limiting subpoenas of journalists, April 2025
On April 25, 2025, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, head of the Department of Justice, the federal department that prosecutes federal crimes, rescinded rules adopted in 2021 and 2022 under her predecessor, Merrick Garl…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
60 Minutes executive producer resigns, citing lost editorial independence
60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, saying corporate owner Paramount had begun supervising the program's content in new ways while it faced President Trump's lawsuit over a Harris interview and pursued a sale requiring feder…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
White House ends wire services' guaranteed seat in the press pool
The White House ended the decades-old practice of guaranteeing wire services Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg a daily seat in the small press pool that covers the president, making them compete instead for a single rotating print sl…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: U.S. Agency for Global Media action to shut down Voice of America operations, March 2025
Beginning on March 15, 2025, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the United States federal agency that oversees the government's international broadcasters, placed most of its staff on paid administrative leave and moved to shut down…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: White House takes over selection of the presidential press pool, February 2025
On February 25, 2025, the White House announced that it would decide which journalists join the press pool, the small rotating group of reporters who cover the president of the United States in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: White House exclusion of the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, February 2025
On February 11, 2025, the White House, the office of the president of the United States, began barring journalists from the Associated Press (AP), a United States news agency, from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the aircraft that carri…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Border czar Tom Homan says ICE media ride-alongs may end over leaks
White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration might stop letting journalists ride along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after an Aurora, Colorado raid captured far fewer people than expected, which officials a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
FCC chair reopens 'news distortion' complaints against CBS and NBC
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reopened complaints alleging CBS and NBC distorted the news, demanding CBS turn over the full tape and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview and later accusing NBC's parent Comcast of mis…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Trump sues Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer over final Iowa poll
President-elect Trump sued the Des Moines Register and longtime pollster Ann Selzer under Iowa's consumer fraud law over her final pre-election poll, which showed Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa days before Trump won the state; a judge later q…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Political appointees alter CDC coronavirus guidance before public release
Reporting in 2020 found that political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote or edited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public coronavirus guidance and its weekly scientific bulletin before relea…
Prior restraint · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
Federal officers restrict press access to Portland protests; judge orders them to stop
After federal officers deployed to Portland used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on journalists and legal observers covering protests, the American Civil Liberties Union sued, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction b…
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
United States indicts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act
The United States indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 17 counts under the Espionage Act over the 2010 publication of leaked military and diplomatic files, charges press-freedom groups said could expose ordinary national-security j…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
White House revokes CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press credential after a news conference exchange with President Trump
After CNN's Jim Acosta questioned President Trump at a news conference and briefly kept hold of a microphone as an intern reached for it, the White House suspended his hard pass, the standing credential letting reporters enter the grounds;…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
United States: White House suspension of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's hard pass, November 2018
On November 7, 2018, the White House suspended the hard pass of CNN's White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, after what Gulf News called a "heated confrontation" between Acosta and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, at a new…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
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