(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) An appeals court reversed a lower court’s temporary injunction that had forced President Donald Trump to include the Associated Press in restricted White House spaces, including the Oval Office.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 on Friday that Trump retains full discretion over which news organizations enter those privileged areas.
“We grant in part the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal,” Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao wrote, as quoted by ABC News. “The White House is likely to succeed on the merits because these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion.”
They affirmed that the White House has “discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted.”
Trump asked the appeals court to freeze the lower-court order forcing AP into the so-called press pool—a once-coveted group of privileged reporters—and the panel agreed.
Without the stay, the judges warned, “the government will suffer irreparable harm because the injunction impinges on the president’s independence and control over this private workspaces.”
The White House took control of the pool to admit outlets previously banned or blocked by the Biden administration and the White House Correspondents’ Association.
In February, Trump expelled the AP from the pool after the outlet refused to update its Stylebook to reflect his renaming of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the Gulf of America.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hailed the decision on X:
VICTORY!
As we’ve said all along, the Associated Press is not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in other sensitive locations.
Thousands of other journalists have never been afforded the opportunity to cover the… https://t.co/rML8rgYuQh pic.twitter.com/7OWByTMf0x
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 6, 2025
