Trump Admin Bars Reporter From Event
Well, here we go again—another battle between the Trump administration and the mainstream media, this time over a name change that’s got the Associated Press clutching its pearls. The White House blocked an AP reporter from attending an Oval Office event on Tuesday, and according to the AP, it all comes down to their refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by its new Trump-designated name: the Gulf of America.
Now, let’s break this down. On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order titled Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness, which directed the Secretary of the Interior to rename the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The administration followed up by recognizing February 9 as the first-ever Gulf of America Day.
What if -- and I'm just spitballing here -- other major news organizations stopped attending Oval Office events out of solidarity with the AP, whose excellent reporting we and they have depended upon for decades?
(Look up the confessional that begins with "First they came for ...)
— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 5:27 PM
A bold move? Sure. But the AP wasn’t having it. In a statement on January 23, they declared they would not be following Trump’s directive, arguing that the Gulf of Mexico is internationally recognized and that Trump’s order “only carries authority within the United States.”
So, fast-forward to Tuesday, when the AP tried to send a reporter into the Oval Office for an official event, and the White House essentially said, Not so fast. The AP then released a very dramatic statement, accusing the Trump administration of punishing them for “independent journalism” and warning that restricting access to the Oval Office “plainly violates the First Amendment.”
Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That's viewpoint discrimination, and it's unconstitutional.
President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a… pic.twitter.com/EX0HarvhkW
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 11, 2025
But here’s where it gets interesting. The AP, despite claiming journalistic neutrality, routinely bends its style guide to fit certain narratives. They insist on phrases like “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women,” push terms like “gender-affirming care” when discussing medical procedures for minors, and selectively choose when to acknowledge executive orders they agree with.
Take, for example, their sudden willingness to accept Trump’s decision to revert Denali back to Mount McKinley—a name change that aligns with Trump’s vision of restoring historical American names.
This is ORWELLIAN, folks:
FOTUS barred an AP reporter from an executive order signing in the Oval today b/c AP declined to alter its editorial style to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America.”
READ THAT AGAIN PLEASE
open.substack.com/pub/aaronpar...
— lkivett (@lkivett.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) jumped into the fray as well, issuing a statement from its president, Eugene Daniels, insisting that press organizations should be free to set their own standards and should not be penalized by the government. “The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news,” Daniels wrote, demanding that the administration reverse course.
But let’s be real: every administration has had a tense relationship with the press, and access to events inside the Oval Office has always been at the discretion of the White House. The AP’s moral outrage would carry a lot more weight if they hadn’t spent years selectively deciding when executive orders matter and when they don’t. And the idea that the First Amendment guarantees Oval Office access? That’s a stretch even for them.
We have to stop this downhill spiral before it’s unstoppable!!
— Lisa (@rockfan22.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM