Topline
President Donald Trump questioned the merits of a judge’s order requiring him to renew White House access for three media outlets be banned in a new interview—the latest example of Trump taking a dismissive stance toward the courts.
US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 30, 2026. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Key Facts
“I’m not ignoring his order. I’m just saying that when I don’t have to go out of my way, these people write only bad stories. When they say orders, what order? I’m not even aware,” Trump told Time magazine in a new interview published Monday, referring to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s order requiring Trump to restore White House access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico after Trump revoked their privileges last month.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung then interjected and said, “the judge basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House, but that’s different than allowing the pool into events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.
Trump replied, “he actually said to the premises of the White House?”
Kelly ordered the Trump administration to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the outlets’ White House hard passes, which are long-term credentials that give journalists unfettered access to press areas in the White House, noting the purpose of the order is to “preserve the latest uncontested status quo while the litigation proceeds.”
Trump said the order was more about addressing the “process” for ousting media outlets, rather than the merits of the ban itself, he said.
The judge did rule that the outlets would be “likely to succeed in showing that their hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process,” but he also cast doubt on the merits of Trump’s reasoning for revoking the passes, noting that “the court is skeptical—at least on this record—that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation.”
What else did Trump address in the Time interview?
Trump wouldn’t commit to not demolishing the Kennedy Center. He said, “I’m not committing to anything. Trump has threatened the Kennedy Center could be “ripped down” after courts blocked his administration from putting his name on the building. Trump told Time he wants to be recognized if he restores the building. “Now I’m in a unique position. I’m a really good builder. I can fix it . . . and I’m also real rich where I can—and I have influence where I can put money and I can also raise money.”
Key Background
Trump revoked White House hard passes for CNN, MS NOW and Politico last month, citing what he described as persistent reporting of “fake news.” The timing of the ban was somewhat unclear—as Kelly notes in his order, the White House renewed CNN reporter Betsy Klein’s White House hard pass “several months after she published some of the identified reporting, undercutting any argument that she or her employer, for example, had the requisite notice that the conduct at issue violated a relevant standard.” The TV pool, which includes CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox and CBS, refused to cover Trump for a week, leaving him without a microphone on at least one occasion, in solidarity with CNN as the case played out in court. The Trump administration also continued to deny entry to some White House events for some of the reporters from the banned outlets after Kelly’s order, including blocking some CNN and MS NOW reporters from attending events connected to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit.
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