Appeals Court Lets White House Exclude Associated Press (2)

A federal appeals court will allow President Donald Trump to continue to block news outlets from covering him in “restricted” spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One based on their editorial decisions.

In a one-page order on Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit left in place an earlier decision that let White House officials exclude the Associated Press from a rotating pool of reporters and photographers who cover the president’s daily movements while an underlying legal fight goes forward.

The latest decision from the Washington-based court, which has a majority of active judges appointed by Democratic presidents, is a win, for now, for Trump and senior aides who have sought to exert more control over the media organizations that have access to him.

Read More: Court Rules Trump Can Exclude Journalists From Oval Office

The AP could ask the US Supreme Court to step in. None of the DC Circuit’s 11 active judges noted a dissent from Tuesday’s order siding with the government at this stage, suggesting AP would face steep odds of success before the conservative-majority high court.

“We are disappointed by today’s procedural decision but remain focused on the strong district court opinion in support of free speech as we have our case heard,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement. “The press and the public have a fundamental right to speak freely without government retaliation. We look forward to continuing to produce strong, factual and nonpartisan coverage of the administration.”

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields praised the order and said in a statement that the “AP’s outrageous, self-absorbed actions are an embarrassment to journalism” and that “the Trump administration is the most accessible and transparent in history.”

The news agency sued the Trump administration in February after the White House press office started limiting the access of AP reporters and photographers. The administration said it was blocking the wire service because its widely-adopted style guide continued to use the term “Gulf of Mexico” with a reference to Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water as the “Gulf of America.”

A federal district judge in Washington ordered the White House to restore the AP’s position in the press pool in April, but two months later, a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit sided with the Trump administration and largely halted the lower court order. The panel did leave in place part of the original order that required the AP to still have access to the East Room in the White House, which was usually open to a broader group of reporters.

The AP had asked that all of the circuit’s active judges reconsider the panel’s decision.

The case is Associated Press v. Budowich, 25-5109, DC Circuit Court of Appeals (Washington).

(Updated with comment from the White House.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Elizabeth Wasserman

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.