The Associated Press (AP) is taking three Trump officials to court in defence of its editorial independence, freedom of speech, and ability to gather and report the news.
The AP is one of the world’s three largest news agencies – along with Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP).
It’s owned as a cooperative by the newspapers of America and has newspaper, television and radio broadcast, and other news organisation subscribers across the world.
Its reports are used by most mainstream American news outlets as well as most other major news organisations around the world.
A U.S. federal judge on February 24 refused to immediately order the White House to restore AP access to presidential events, saying the news organization had not demonstrated it had suffered any irreparable harm. But he urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”
On February 25 the White House took over control of media access saying its officials “will determine” which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump up close — a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.
AP February 21 2025 – original report
The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“This targeted attack on the AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment,” the news agency said. “This court should remedy it immediately.”
In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agency’s customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP’s decision not to fully follow the president’s renaming.
“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said Tuesday.
This week, about 40 news organizations signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.
AP sues Trump officials-updated
Judge rejects immediate stop to White House ban
White House takes control of media access
White House strikes back at AP – Axios
Trump’s first 6 weeks: testing the limits of presidential power and U.S. democracy – AP
Trump says AP to be restricted in dispute over naming the Gulf of Mexico
White House accuses media of lies and bars AP from presidential access
International Press Institute (IPI) urges Trump administration to end AP restrictions
AP sues Trump officials – New York Times
AP sues Trump officials – Politico
The White House and the press – a contentious history
The AP – Wikipedia
