Donald Trump faced a wave of criticism on Monday after the White House media restrictions appeared to backfire, leaving viewers around the world watching a South Lawn ribbon-cutting ceremony without any usable sound.
The president was marking the opening of a new granite helipad, standing alongside construction workers as he prepared to board the latest Marine One helicopter. The facility is estimated to have cost $6 million and was built after the powerful aircraft reportedly scorched the White House lawn.
With the usual television press pool—representing ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and NBC—not covering the event, viewers were left in silence when Trump began speaking. The White House video feed showed the president, but provided no functioning audio.
The networks had announced earlier that they would suspend coverage of presidential pool events after the Trump administration blocked reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico over the weekend.
Trump-friendly network Newsmax carried the White House livestream, cutting to images of the president speaking outside the building. His remarks, however, could not be heard by viewers.
“Okay, there is no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,” the anchor told the audience. “So maybe this is one example of this backfiring just a little bit … the ramifications are right here—we can’t hear what the president is saying.”
The awkward broadcast quickly became a target of online ridicule, with clips of the silent ceremony circulating widely across social media.
Veteran Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree posted: “Here is what happens when you don’t have the White House TV Pool. You have video of Trump—but you can’t hear what the President is saying.”
Donald Trump takes part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new White House helipad on the South Lawn before boarding the latest Marine One helicopter on Monday
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins attends the US Open earlier this month
Another user on X wrote: “He wants to be a dictator so bad he banned the press without realizing it would silence his own voice!”
The White House also unveiled its own app on Monday, promoting “real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone.”
“No noise. Just the news that matters most—straight from the Trump Administration,” the White House wrote on X.
The confrontation intensified after CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed suit against the administration, saying their journalists had been refused entry at the White House gates over the weekend.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” attorneys for the outlets said in a 27-page complaint filed Monday.
Later that day, the country’s major television networks announced that they would halt presidential pool coverage in support of the affected news organizations.
Bryan Boughton, Fox News Washington bureau chief and the current chair of the television pool, informed subscribers by email: “This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
The disruption comes at a particularly busy moment for Trump. The president embarked on a diplomatic whirlwind, traveling to New York for the United Nations General Assembly before returning to Washington to receive Chinese President Xi Jinping.
CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein reports near the White House complex on Saturday after Donald Trump revoked her credential
Donald Trump, riding inside The Beast, arrives at Gracie Mansion for a meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York, US, September, 21
Trump rolls through New York’s Upper East on Monday. The president is meeting with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and attending the United Nations General Assembly later this week
Xi’s visit is set to feature a lavish state welcome, but if the TV pool suspension holds, the networks may not provide pool coverage of the events.
Trump will be waiting at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday when Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan arrive.
The next morning, the White House will hold a State Arrival Ceremony involving 479 service members, with every branch of the military represented. A B-2 Spirit and four F-22 Raptors will fly overhead before Trump and Melania host Xi for a State Dinner.
Honor guards have spent days rehearsing on the White House grounds for a welcome designed to mirror the treatment Beijing gave Trump in May.
Trump wanted the helipad completed before Xi’s arrival and crews raced to finish it, according to the South China Morning Post.
It is not yet clear whether the Xi events will be designated pool coverage and so fall under the boycott.
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‘I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
He warned that ‘other Fake News Media Outlets’ could be next and has also threatened action against the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Reporters from the three outlets were turned away when they arrived for work on Saturday, with Secret Service officers confiscating their hard passes at the gates.
Melania Trump’s team approved credentials for CNN to cover an event with the First Lady on Tuesday despite the White House ban on the outlet
MS NOW White House Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard delivers a television report on a street corner outside the White House grounds on Monday after his outlet was banned
CNN’s Betsy Klein, who has covered the White House since 2018, was told her pass had been deactivated before an officer took it from her.
When MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner asked why hers had been disabled, the officer told her such matters were ‘above’ him. Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett was also stripped of her pass.
CNN had been due to lead the TV pool on Monday, the day of the helipad unveiling, but was struck from the schedule in White House guidance sent at 10.55pm on Sunday, according to the three outlets’ lawsuit.
The ban immediately affected entire newsrooms. At the time, 40 CNN journalists and 22 from MS NOW held hard passes, according to the complaint.
The suit names Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service director Sean Curran as defendants and asks a judge to immediately block the ban and return the passes.
The case has landed with US District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed in his first term. He is on familiar legal ground after ordering the White House in 2018 to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials after his pass was pulled following a heated clash with Trump.
Trump turned on Kelly, writing on Truth Social: ‘They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet.’
‘The Judge’s name is Tim Kelly, and he was, sadly, appointed by “TRUMP.”‘
White House broadcast tents are seen empty on Monday after Trump’s ban
MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner reports outside the White House grounds on Saturday after President Donald Trump banned her outlet
Trump vowed to appeal, arguing that outlets which ‘only write negatively’ should not be allowed into ‘the most important Office anywhere in the World.’
‘It is called the Oval Office, and it should be treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns, who purposefully distort, twist, and degrade with everything they write or publish,’ he wrote.
‘The fact is, I won all seven Swing States, the Popular Vote, the Electoral College (312 to 226), and the Counties throughout America by 86%, and yet it is reported that I get 94% bad publicity.
‘Why should I have to give “access” to such people? Perhaps Judge Kelly could explain that!’
He also renewed his demand that Politico ‘Pay back the 8 Million Dollar contribution made by the US Government to keep them afloat!’ The lawsuit calls the claim ‘categorically false and debunked.’
Trump last week told reporters in the Oval Office that no single article prompted the ban, blaming ‘cumulative stories over the last two years.’
‘You get sick of it,’ he said. ‘I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can, and if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.’
Vice President JD Vance defended the move on Monday. ‘It’s about basic fairness,’ he said. ‘They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore.’
But the First Lady’s office is taking a different approach, adding to the confusion surrounding coverage of the White House.
Melania’s office approved CNN’s request to cover her announcement at the St. Regis hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.
CNN crews also covered Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he opened the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.