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US networks halt pool coverage of Trump over his ban on three news outlets
September 22, 2026
No network camera crew covered the president's Monday events after Trump shut reporters from CNN and two other outlets out of the White House.
Under a longstanding arrangement, five television networks rotate the job of filming a president and passing that footage to the rest of the press corps, so one network's exclusion reaches well beyond its own newsroom.
Key facts
- CNN's turn in the rotation fell on Monday, which put it in line to serve as the television pool at the White House and to travel with the president to this week's UN General Assembly session in New York.
- Trump took no questions from the reporters calling out to him as he climbed aboard Marine One for the trip to New York.
- Boughton wrote, “This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
- Mamdani called his discussion with Trump “wide-ranging”, saying it covered affordable housing and immigration, though he gave little detail about where the two men disagreed.
CNN reports that the television networks sharing the White House pool stopped covering the president's designated events on Monday, and that the other major networks refused to put a substitute crew in place after the administration kept CNN from the duty assigned to it. The pool's chair, Bryan Boughton of Fox News, wrote to pool subscribers that no replacement would be arranged. The Guardian reports the same suspension of video coverage and adds that CNN and the two other barred outlets sued the administration on Monday, saying the ban violated their first amendment rights.
The Guardian reports that the White House answered with an online feed of its own, branded Trump TV, and that the ban left no broadcaster at Trump's midday ribbon cutting for a new White House helipad, where a livestream carried remarks lost under the noise of his helicopter. South China Morning Post reports the same scene on the South Lawn, with Trump cutting a red, white and blue ribbon with oversized gold scissors and then boarding Marine One for New York without answering the questions reporters shouted at him. The Washington Post ties the loss of network video to the ban on CNN.
Photographers moved with the networks. The Guardian reports that several newsrooms held back images from the White House photo pool until midnight ET, and CNN reports that the photographers on Monday's duty took part, so pictures of the president's departure never went out on the wires. The accounts agree on what happened and leave open how long the networks stay away from the president's pool events.
Asked if he pressed Trump on the ban that keeps Politico, MS Now and CNN off White House grounds, Mamdani said: “I told the president that we’re going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn, and that is something that I believe in.”
Mamdani
Still developing
The TV pool network assigned to accompany Trump to New York this week is CNN, which the White House has banned from the grounds, and the networks decline to act as that pool while the ban stands.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNN — Major TV networks stand with CNN, decline to replace its White House pool crew
- The Guardian — Trump set to address UNGA with Middle East and Ukraine on agenda – US politics live
- South China Morning Post — Trump inaugurates White House helipad as major networks skip ceremony | South China Morning Post
Toggle read the full reports of 3 of the 4 outlets counted on this event. The other 1 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.