Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump answered a question about what he meant by other outlets by describing the New York Times and the Washington Post as examples of “fake news,” although he did not specifically say he would ban them from the White House.
The New York Times in a statement called Trump’s latest ban “yet another retaliatory and unconstitutional threat” and said the newspaper “stands in support of the news organizations being unfairly targeted by the president.”
Trump previously has tried to keep certain news outlets or specific journalists out of press gatherings.
Last year he banned the Associated Press from the pool of reporters that cover his movements because the news agency did not adopt Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico after the president instructed the executive branch to call it the Gulf of America. AP has challenged the ban.
In his first term, Trump’s White House sought to revoke or suspend the credentials of Playboy correspondent Brian Karem and CNN‘s Jim Acosta, but federal judges ordered their White House press passes restored.
