Five television networks take turns covering the president from aboard Air Force One, and CNN keeps being left off the plane.
CNN’s outside counsel, Theodore “Ted” Boutrous Jr., a partner at Gibson Dunn, sent a demand letter to the Justice Department on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, over the White House’s exclusion of the network from President Donald Trump’s trips aboard Air Force One. The letter gives the administration until 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Oct. 22, to confirm in writing that it will abandon any policy of keeping CNN out of the Oval Office and off the plane. If that confirmation does not come, the network says it will go back to federal court.
“These efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” Boutrous wrote to Michael Velchik, the Justice Department senior counsel representing the Trump administration. CNN is prepared to litigate the question for as long as it takes, he told the department.
A Ban, a Lawsuit and an Empty Seat
The fight started on Sept. 18, when Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds, citing his unhappiness with their reporting; the Justice Department later said the ban was due in part to national security. The three outlets sued, alleging violations of the First and Fifth Amendments. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly issued a preliminary injunction barring the White House from pulling the hard passes of their reporters and other personnel, finding the blanket ban likely amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and violated the outlets’ due process rights. The administration is appealing.
Access to the White House complex came back. Seats on the plane did not. CNN has been denied a spot on Air Force One at least four times with no advance notice and no explanation, the letter said. The network was blocked from the president’s trip to Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 26, and most recently from his trip to Georgia and Florida, when it was scheduled to serve as television pool lead.
The other major networks have declined to step into the slot, which has left presidential travel with no primary television pooler on some days.
The Briefing Room Trump Barely Visits
Boutrous argues that the Oval Office and Air Force One have overtaken the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room as the principal places where the president briefs reporters and answers their questions. Since January 2025, Trump has fielded more than 4,700 questions in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One and on the tarmac, according to data CNN compiled for the letter. In the briefing room over that same span: roughly 150.
Through the first nine months of 2026, Trump appeared in the briefing room four times. He held 43 press events in the Oval Office and took questions on 51 occasions aboard or alongside Air Force One. Of the nearly 5,000 questions across the three venues, 97 percent came in the Oval Office or were connected to Air Force One travel.
CNN joined the White House’s rotating television press pool in 1981 and has had uninterrupted access to the Oval Office and the plane ever since, Boutrous wrote. Those spaces, he argued, belong to all Americans rather than to any administration, with reporters serving as surrogates for the public.
What Happened When the AP Sued
Kelly’s ruling did not settle whether the White House may shut news outlets out of tighter spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One. That question sits inside a case the Associated Press filed in 2025, after the White House blocked its reporters from the plane, the Oval Office and other limited-space pool areas over the wire service’s refusal to adopt “Gulf of America” in its style guidance.
A federal judge ordered the White House to restore the AP’s access wherever other media are invited, finding viewpoint discrimination. An appellate panel then stayed much of that order, concluding in June 2025 that the administration was likely to prevail on its claim that restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment forums opened for private speech, and that the White House keeps discretion over which journalists are admitted, viewpoint included. A decision on the broader merits is pending. Boutrous called the panel’s order non-binding and non-precedential.
The White House has given no indication it plans to honor Boutrous’ demand, and its appeal of Kelly’s injunction remains unresolved. Trump has been traveling the country to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of the November midterms, stepping off Air Force One at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., on Oct. 19 and landing at Joint Base Andrews, Md., early on Oct. 20.
No person and no journalist has a constitutional right of access to the Oval Office, Air Force One or other sensitive and private facilities, the White House said. “When publications lie, fabricate, and ignore the truth, proximity matters less, and they can write their fiction from outside of these secure facilities,” it told the Daily Beast.