White House blocks journalists from Trump-Xi meeting despite court order

Washington: News outlets CNN, MS NOW and Politico have asked for an emergency court hearing after their journalists were barred from entering the White House for today’s high-stakes summit, despite a judge ruling hours earlier that the ban must be temporarily lifted.

There were no cameras from the main US television networks present as President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday morning (Thursday night AEST), with the news outlets continuing a boycott in solidarity with CNN.

Xi’s arrival was broadcast on the White House’s official social media channel. A pool group of print reporters and photographers was present.

Fox News was using an aerial shot of the White House and file footage when discussing the summit, while also covering other news stories.

Judge Timothy Kelly ruled late on Wednesday (US time) that Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico was likely unconstitutional, and blocked the White House from enforcing it for 14 days.

But the three outlets reported that their journalists were still unable to access the White House on Thursday morning.

They lodged a request for an emergency hearing with the court. That document, seen by this masthead, says Secret Service agents also “confiscated the hard passes of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated”.

And when CNN journalist Betsy Klein – whose pass was confiscated on the weekend – asked for it to be returned, “her request was denied and she was refused access to the White House complex”.

CNN and MS NOW were broadcasting from the streets outside the White House on Thursday morning.

Trump enacted the ban on Saturday due to his objections to the three outlets’ reporting, though he said there was no particular trigger for it other than “fake news”.

More to come

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.