OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:00 PM – Friday, February 14, 2025
Following earlier reports this week regarding the Associated Press being temporarily banned from the White House Oval Office, Trump’s deputy chief of staff announced on Friday that the outlet is now indefinitely barred from entering both the Oval Office and Air Force One.
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The announcement follows the left-leaning outlet’s refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich continued to blast the outlet’s decision to ignore the executive order in an X post on Friday.
“The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America. This decision is not just devise, but it also exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation. While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One,” Budowich wrote.
“Going forward, that space will now be opened up to the many thousands of reporters who have been barred from covering these intimate areas of the administration. Associate Press journalists and photographers will retain their credentials to the White House complex,” he added.
The White House previously banned the outlet from a “pooled” event in the Oval Office earlier in the week, prompting backlash from AP executive editor Julie Pace.
“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing,” Pace wrote on Tuesday.
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment,” she added.
Additionally, other left-wing outlets have vowed to defy President Trump’s executive order — including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters, among others.
The New York Times stated that the “international body of water” has “been known as the Gulf of Mexico for several hundred years. We will continue to follow common usage in updating our style guidance, like we have done in the past with other areas of the world. We’ll continue to cover the news of the President’s executive order fairly and in service of our audiences, and will refer to ‘Gulf of America’ when needed for reader context.”
White House press secretary Karolina Leavitt defended the decision after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins questioned the move on Tuesday.
“We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” Leavitt stated. “It is a privilege to cover this White House. It’s a privilege to be the White House press secretary, and nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions. That’s an invitation that is given.”
During the Biden administration, right-wing outlets such as One America News (OAN) and Newsmax were officially banned from the briefing room as well — led by former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Nevertheless, both networks are now allowed back in the Oval Office briefing room as the Trump administration has restored their press passes.
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