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CNN And MS NOW Denied Access To White House State Dinner

adminSeptember 25, 20262 Mins read4

CNN And MS NOW Denied Access To White House State Dinner

Topline

CNN and MS NOW were denied access to report on President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s White House state dinner, according to both outlets, despite a judge lifting the Trump administration’s ban against them and Politico on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump pose on the North Portico steps of the White House ahead of a State Dinner in Washington, D.C., on September 24, 2026.

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

CNN anchor Erin Burnett said the news outlet was denied access to cover the guest arrivals for the dinner, which included tech moguls such as OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

MS NOW reported it and CNN’s journalists were not allowed to cover Xi’s return to the White House for the dinner.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico had their White House press credentials revoked over the weekend, though the outlets should have access to the White House after a judge lifted the ban Thursday.

The outlets filed for an emergency hearing Thursday in hopes of reporting on Xi’s arrival to the White House, later gaining back access to the White House grounds in the afternoon.

Forbes has reached out to the White House for comment.

Who Is At The Dinner?

In addition to Altman, Huang and Pichai, many other billionaire tech moguls are in attendance, including Tesla chief Elon Musk, Apple executive chairman and ex-CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and more. The dinner is expected to address recent expert warnings about how artificial intelligence could lead to human extinction.

Key Background

The ban against the three outlets was issued nearly a week ago, with Trump attributing the decision to “constant” reporting of “fake news.” Reporters from the outlets were prohibited from entering the White House and had their press credentials confiscated. CNN, MS NOW and Politico immediately filed a lawsuit claiming the ban was a First Amendment violation. The White House argued the ban was a matter of national security, though U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled the ban was likely unconstitutional and issued a temporary order requiring the outlets’ access be restored. Multiple outlets vowed to limit their coverage of Trump following the ban, which resulted in the president’s unveiling of the new White House helipad to be broadcast with no audio. Trump could be seen speaking during the event, though his words were overpowered by the static of the broadcast provided.