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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump Says He's Banning CNN, Politico, & MS Now From White House. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 18, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There's a brand-new cat that's out there that science just found.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Isn't that wild?
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
KEILAR: Like, you wouldn't think.
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
KEILAR: But there you go.
SANCHEZ: They're still out there.
Shout out to Brianna's cat.
KEILAR: Yeah. Rescued, rescued cat.
THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.
Does that make me a hero?
SANCHEZ: CNN hero.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, a stunning assault on the freedom of the press as the president says he is banning CNN and others from the White House.
Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA.
Just moments ago, President Donald Trump used the social media platform that he owns to launch an unprecedented attack on America's news media. The president saying that he is banning CNN, MS NOW, and "Politico" from the White House, quote, "as a result of their constant reporting fake news. media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when they're covering the president of the United States, the Trump administration, or the United States of America. Other fake news media outlets to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump," end quote.
All right, let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA.
My panel is standing by, but first, I want to bring in CNN senior White House correspondent Kristin Holmes and CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.
Kristen, let me start with you. Walk us through the president post, the president's post, and tell us what he's saying right now.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In the Oval Office, he was doing an event on health care. But there is a slew of reporters with him, and it is likely that he will be asked specifically about this. Just to note, we are not in the pool, so we were never going to be in that room with him today.
The hit itself going through excuse me, the Truth Social Post itself says that he is proud to announced that, effective immediately, he is going to be banning what he says is fake news CNN, MS NOW, "Politico". He insults all three of these outlets, and then he says that they will be banned immediately.
It's really unclear what exactly he means by that. I just would note that there are different levels of press coverage that we do here at the White House. We are still reporting right now, and we will see how this plays out. But again, we do expect that this is likely to come up when he opens that event to questions from the reporters that are in the room.
HUNT: All right. So, Brian Stelter, can you tell us a little bit about what you're learning?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: An information vacuum and I find myself on one side feeling bemused by this because right now it's just an empty threat with no follow-up and then on the other side being very concerned because this president has lashed out at the press for many years, has been escalating those attacks in the past couple of years since he's been back in office. He has taken many steps to try to control critical coverage and try to really stamp out critical coverage of his presidency.
So, if that's really what he's trying right now and if he does follow through, then we're going to be in an unprecedented situation.
There is something a little bit like this, though, that happened in 2018, and some viewers might remember. this right after the midterms in 2018, kind of a similarly gloomy climate for the president politically. The White House revoked the press credentials of then- chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta following an exchange that Trump and Acosta had at a press conference right after the midterm elections.
CNN sued in order to restore Acosta's press pass, and a judge, a federal judge, weighed in within days, temporarily restoring that press access, ruling that the White House had violated CNN's due process. So, the courts in that case upheld the First Amendment right -- very quickly, right away. And then the White House eventually reinstated Acosta's press pass on a permanent basis, so CNN dropped the lawsuit.
So that's the only thing like this in terms of precedent for the president coming forward, saying he's banning someone, in that case actually taking away the physical press pass that allowed Acosta access to the White House grounds. In this case, we don't know, right? Is there a different kind of follow-up the president has in mind?
Right now, there's been nothing. And as Kristen just showed, the CNN team keeps reporting, which I think I can say this on Kristen's behalf, that's all she wants to do there today. That's all the reporters at the White House want to do on any given day, just try to figure out what's going on and report on the president and his administration on behalf of the public.
But it seems, Kasie, the president wants to pick a fight today, and we'll see if he follows through or not.
HUNT: All right, Brian Stelter, Kristen Holmes, thanks very much for being there to start us off today.
My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN political commentator, Republican strategist, and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson; CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel; and we are also joined by CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali.
So, as we get started here, I do think it's worth just taking a moment. We, of course, have seen President Trump attack the media over the many years he has been in public life and in public office, including using the phrase fake news, repeatedly.
As we set the stage here and again, we don't know a lot about what this means, yet we don't have a lot of information.
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But it's worth considering how previous presidents -- and let's stick with Republican presidents like President Donald J. Trump -- have said about the news media in the past.
Let's start with President George W. Bush who in 2017 appeared on "The Today Show" and said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy, that we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. I mean, power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: We're listening now to President Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Much more so than you, because they're fake news. And you get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it's just fake. That's why their ratings are no
good.
When you look at MS NOW, which used to be MSNBC, which some people call MSDNC, Democratic National Committee, it's fake news. It's fake news. And excuse me, excuse me.
And when you look at P is "Politico", I mean, they got a government, the government under Biden gave him like $8 million to keep him afloat. And the stories they wrote are fake.
So, there's a lot of news and there may be others to join them and maybe they can get better and would like to have them in.
But our country has to have honest news. You know, you don't have a country unless you have, as I say, borders, good voting, we're straightening them out. Borders are unbelievable. Nobody's come into our country in the last 17 months illegally.
But you need borders, and you need fair and free voting. And you know what you need? You need a free press. You need a fair press and an honest press.
And CNN -- and you know it, and everybody knows it. You're intelligent. I've known you a long time. You know how fake their reporting is.
It's one-sided. It's never good. I've done many, many -- look at this story today about favored nations on drugs. We lowered the drug costs by 50, 60, 70 percent.
They won't even put it -- if they put it on, it'll be a leg -- they will find a reason why that's a negative, okay?
REPORTER: Why aren't you doing this ban now? Is there a particular reason?
TRUMP: No, no reason. No, just because -- No. No, it's really just cumulative stories. Over the last few years, you get sick of it. And you call them and you tell them, I have very good experts, like people behind me.
Bobby, Oz, they call and they try and explain things to them. They know that they know it. They know it as well. They're smart people, but they purposely write negative news.
And they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration. And honestly, we've done a fantastic job.
Look at the numbers. Look at the economic numbers. We have more money coming into our country today than ever before. We have the highest employment that we've ever had in history. All of these things are the lowest.
We have the best poverty rate, the lowest poverty rate in the history of our country. And people are making more money today than they ever had. And we do have something that I'm very proud of. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
Now, for that, people are going to have to pay some I think most people, if they had a vote on lower gas prices or letting Iran have a nuclear weapon, I'd be willing to vote that it would be a massive landslide. People don't want to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. And you know what? They won't.
And the war is going to end soon. And when it ends, your gas prices are going to drop to a level that they were before, maybe even lower. When I left Iowa, just before I started this, I had no choice. I said to my people, have to do an excursion down to Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, because they're going to have a nuclear -- if we don't hit them with a B-2 bombers, they right now would have a nuclear weapon. And if they had it, it would be a matter of days. I equate it somewhat to the Democrats. If they ever got into power, they will terminate the filibuster, and they will immediately have D.C. as a state, they will immediately have many other things take place, but D.C. and Puerto Rico will become immediately.
That gives them four more senators. That gives them lots of other things, like 12 congressmen. They want to have ideally 21 Supreme Court justices. They will have everything they ever dreamed of.
And, frankly, Republicans should terminate the filibuster, because if you don't do it, they're going to do it, and you can't let that happen.
REPORTER: Mr. President, Willie Nelson with Salem Media. Mr. President, reports say the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case and, excuse me, reports say the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case and his family were doxxed and threatened so badly he left Massachusetts.
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What's your take on that?
TRUMP: Well, I just don't know. I think the case is very sad. It's a horrible thing. She was on all sorts of drugs, and she was very messed up. She killed three children, her three children.
It's a very tough situation, and I know the jury was certainly not a friendly one in terms of that one person, but it's not for me. Look, you had a jury, and the jury was hung, and we'll see whether or not they have another trial.
REPORTER: Mr. President, many leading Democrats have condemned far- left streamer Hasan Piker. What is your take on him? And do you think he's a liability for Democrats?
TRUMP: I do. I think he's a terrible liability. I think he's got a power over some of these Democrats, and he'll be voting that way. I mean, he's a communist. There's no question about it. And the Democrats have a lot of communists, and the communists can
hold up the party because it only takes a few votes when you have a close election. you'll have a fairly close I hope the Republicans are going to do well but you're going to have -- it's going to be pretty close and a group of three, four, five, 10 people can steer a party in a certain direction. That's -- you know, both parties.
Yeah, no, he's a guy who's very -- I mean, his statements are so bad how a Jewish person could vote for a Democrat is not even if you think of it not even believable and yet they will. It's amazing.
But it is not possible in a world of rationality that somebody who's Jewish, that somebody who's black could vote to be a Democrat, could vote for a Democrat. The things that have been said about different groups of people by them are incredible.
And the mainstream Democrats, I know many of them and I'm friendly with many of them, but they've gone way left because they've had no choice not because they don't believe it. They know communism's never worked. They know socialism's never worked, but these people are petrified of the radical left and he's one of them.
REPORTER: Mr. President, Polish leaders have expressed concerns that Russia may attack Ukrainian allies. Do you agree with that assessment?
TRUMP: Well, I think they already have attacked Ukrainian allies. They've been attacking Ukrainian allies for --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: So I do agree with that. I think everyone agrees with that.
REPORTER: Mr. President -- Congressman --
TRUMP: No, no, go ahead. Did you mean Ukrainian or another country?
REPORTER: Ukrainian. So Poland is concerned. --
TRUMP: You mean, they're -- are they concerned that they're going to attack Poland?
REPORTER: Yes, they might attack.
TRUMP: Well, you have a great president. He was a big Trump fan. He was in twelfth place. I endorsed him. And now he's president. And he's doing a fantastic job. And he is -- he's got it under control. He's got it.
REPORTER: And then, Congresswoman Maria Salazar filmed a video outside the White House the other day, disagreeing with your immigration policies. You endorsed her primary campaign. Do you still back her run, and have you seen that video?
TRUMP: Well, I do, and I have. I disagree with her. Look, I have a strong -- a very strong -- it's a movement, my movement. It probably, at least partially, won the election. When I got elected at the beginning and, you know, previous to my
coming in, we had the most unsafe border maybe anywhere in the world, maybe in history, 25 million people poured in from prisons, from mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers, 11,888 murderers came in, all documented. They allowed them into our country.
I have a very strong -- she obviously doesn't have a very strong feeling for the border, but I do. And I understand what she's saying, but I have a very strong -- I won because of my border: Now, nobody thinks about it anymore.
Look, they just announced the numbers. Over the last 16 months, nobody -- zero -- I even find that hard to believe. But it's done by a group of people that seem to sort of lean Democrat. You know, they're not going to give me anything for nothing. And they say over the last 16 months, not one person came in through the southern border illegally, which is pretty hard to believe.
But even if you said a few did, but 25 million came in through Biden, and a lot of them should never be here. No, I'm very strong on the borders, and she isn't. And she's a nice person. I got her elected. Without me, she wouldn't have gotten elected.
She ran against a person a number of years ago who was not even thought possible to lose. And then when I endorsed Maria, she ended up winning, and the biggest surprise in all of Congress for that for that session, for that term.
And Maria won only because of me.
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So, she got a little bit soft on the border. I understand that. I understand that. But I just don't happen to be there.
REPORTER: Mr. President, is the freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment?
TRUMP: Thank you for telling me that.
REPORTER: Are you trying to intimidate the press from doing that job?
TRUMP: No, no, no. I dislike dishonest press, like you. I think you're terrible. But I dislike dishonest. I like to see honest press. Yeah, please.
REPORTER: In the first administration, you tried a similar ban against CNN and it didn't survive a court challenge. What makes you think that this --
TRUMP: Well, we'll see. I mean, it didn't -- we didn't have to take it too far because the reporter that you're talking about discredited himself. He became a joke, so he no longer was very effective. So, it didn't matter.
No, but I think it's good. I think it's good to point it out whether it survives or doesn't. I don't think a court should allow -- depends on the judge you get, to be honest with you. I don't think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day.
I think that somebody has a right to keep them away. If they're going to write false stories all the time, I don't think I've had -- look, I won the presidency. I won all seven swing states. I won the popular vote. I won 87 percent of the counties. That's why the maps are all red when you look, except for two little blue lines on each coast. I won a landslide.
And I get no -- I don't get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox. Fox is the worst.
I think Fox has, frankly, the worst polls in the whole business. I think they should have gotten rid of their pollsters years ago. They've been calling me wrong for 10 years.
But my polls have been very good. I get good polls. I get good everything. But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth.
CNN is fake news. MS NOW is fake news. They're fake news. They know it. They're put there for a reason.
"Politico" was bailed out by our government from going out of business I don't know if it was eight million dollars or something but they were given this massive subsidy prior to my coming into office because they write only negative you know only negative now we've done something that nobody's ever done politically I've had a political career like nobody else in history on occasion it would be nice if we had some fairness. It's all fake news.
Yeah, please.
REPORTER: Mr. President, to put a finer point on it though, how is this legal and constitutional, considering the First Amendment? And Governor Sanders, you were White House press secretary. Do you agree with this plan to ban news outlets?
TRUMP: Well, I'll just answer it again. I'll say it the same way. I don't think somebody should be allowed to come in and write fake stories. They're fake news. And that's why they have no credibility.
That's why -- so I had 96 percent negative coverage during the election, and I won because they have no credibility. I got 96. I guess NBC was 93 percent negative. So, 93 -- with all of the victories I've had, everything's been a victory. It's all been a victory.
And I won the election like nobody's ever seen anything like it. I get no -- they never write a good story. They won't write a story about -- I just reduced drug prices by 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 percent.
I will get a good story out of these people. From some of them, I will. I'll get one from him. I'll get one from him. I'll get a few of them.
But it's sick. I mean, there's something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.
Now, if they want to write them, that's fine. But I don't have to let them into my -- into the people's house. Yeah, please.
The governor, go ahead.
GOV. SARAH SANDERS (R), ARKANSAS: Sure. I think it's hard for you to argue against a free press when you're literally standing in the Oval Office asking questions. He's been more accessible and easier to talk to than any president in history. Think about the previous administration where you could barely get through a press conference and yet you have the opportunity to stand here in the Oval Office and ask questions to the leader of the free world.
I mean, that's pretty free and you're standing here asking those questions. I think the president is right to support the First Amendment, but he's also right to ask that you be honest and fair. That's not an unreasonable thing.
TRUMP: Well, look at the way you treated Biden. He went a year and a half without having a press conference. A year and a half. And what was the question you asked him most? What is your favorite flavored ice cream? Okay?
What -- I think you asked him that question once. What ice cream do you like the best? I mean, I heard that question so many times and he always say vanilla. That's a good thing. He was very consistent. I'm surprised he got that right but he'd always say vanilla.
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Yeah, please?
REPORTER: On another note, are you just aware that Senator John Thune isn't bringing the Ratepayer Protection Act to the floor.
TRUMP: He's not --
REPORTER: He's not bringing the Ratepayer Protection Act that the House passed.
TRUMP: Well, I'm talking to him about it. We'll see what happens.
REPORTER: President Xi coming here next week.
TRUMP: Great honor.
REPORTER: China is one of the most repressive countries for journalism in the world. What signal is it saying?
TRUMP: I don't know about that. I think we're repressive also. We get fake news. We don't repress, but they write fake news.
No, I think he's going to come. We get along very well. It's nice that we get along very well. We've had a good relationship. He'll be here next week. I can tell you this. It's too bad we don't have the ballroom open because if we did, we
could have we'd have thousands. We could have 2,000 people having dinner. They would love -- we have a very tiny little room that's going to be squeezed out at about 125 or so people.
But I literally could tell you that thousands of people would love to be at that dinner. This is a very tough ticket for me. I've told a lot of very good friends of mine, you just can't come. Just can't come.
It's -- we're going to have a very good meeting. We're going to have a meeting. We get along well. We're doing very well with China. I would say others maybe not so well, but we're doing very well with China.
President Xi and I have a good relationship.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: We're going to have a lot of different deals. We're not just doing it for our health. We're going to have some pretty important meetings. You know, China is paying us a lot of tariffs.
And you remember, I had it up to 145 percent at one point, but it was too much. It was really hurting them badly, and I didn't want to do that. You know, we get along very well. We have a good relationship.
Now, you know, somebody said, oh, they spy on us. And I said, maybe they do, but we spy on them, too. You know, I don't want to give any, any certified or classified information, but we spy on them, too.
They said, they spy on you, sir. I said, we spy on them, too.
Yeah. Please, back, back, back, back. Go ahead. Not you.
REPORTER: Thank you, sir.
Charlotte (INAUDIBLE). Pennsylvania has reported four measles-related deaths. What's your message to other states who might worry about a spread or outbreak coming to their --
TRUMP: I think we're going to be in good shape. We have nothing against vaccinations for measles. Do you want to discuss that for a second, either Bobby or Oz?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: We encourage people to vaccinate. It's on all the CDC's websites.
CDC has not yet received information about the measles deaths, the alleged measles deaths. We're waiting for that. And we will put it up on our website when we hear about it.
We encourage people to vaccinate. One of the problems with Pennsylvania is that the governor has still very recently refused to cooperate with CDC.
We were able to go in and end the outbreaks in all the other states, in South Dakota and Texas and all the other states. We sent our Epi- Aid team into those states. And I offered that to Governor Shapiro. He said, no, we don't need your help.
TRUMP: They've got a bad governor in Pennsylvania. People just don't know it. He's very -- he's close to incompetent.
Daniel?
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Daniel?
REPORTER: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Wait a minute.
REPORTER: You announced last week that you'd be delivering $5,000 rebate checks to nearly a million Americans who were overcharged via Obamacare. Can you talk about what this would look like?
TRUMP: Yeah, we saved hundreds of millions of dollars for the overcharging that the Democrats did for Obamacare and other things. And we found it. We gave it back to the people. We handed them back a lot of money. And thank you for bringing that up.
The other thing is, as you know, because we're doing so well, taking in so much money on tariffs and other things, because we have more factories being built than at any time in the history of our country, including car plants and every other kind of plant, including A.I., but including everything, we are giving Republicans or and when I say Republicans, because I think everybody's going to be Republican, actually. But we're giving the people of our country who are adults $5,000 if the Republicans win. Because if the Republicans win, we're going to have a lot of money.
If the Democrats win, we're going to go into a depression. And all these tax cuts and all the things that have made this economy so strong and -- we're the hottest nation in the world. All of the things that we got will be taken away by the Democrats. Every one of them is going to be taken away. The tax cuts, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our seniors, no tax on overtime. All of that is going to be taken away.
They all voted against it. They voted in favor of men playing in women's sports. They voted in favor of the transgender mutilization of your children.
[16:25:03]
You're going to be back to that stuff. Right now, it doesn't exist, but you're going to be back to it. So, if we win, because we have so much, because we are taking in so much money, we're going to give all people, not just everybody that's an adult, $5,000. The only proviso is that have to spend it in this country. And when they spend it in the country, It's very inexpensive.
REPORTER: What do you mean by others to come? And how is this ban going to work? TRUMP: Others to come in terms of fake news?
REPORTER: Yes.
TRUMP: Look, "The New York Times" is fake news. "Washington Post" is fake news. They're crummy papers, both doing very poorly, by the way. But we'll see, we're probably not going to display the paper anymore in the White House, those papers, but we haven't taken the step of throwing them out, but they're fake news, totally.
"New York Times" is so fake. "Washington Post" is disgusting. I mean, they're disgusting. I don't get it. Why would they be?
You know, we're doing so well. And they'll take the most positive story and make it as negative as possible.
Go ahead, please.
REPORTER: It's only free when you agree with them?
TRUMP: No, no, please.
REPORTER: You're speaking to UNGA next week. What is your message? Because last year, you sort of said that the United Nations are helping end wars.
TRUMP: Well, last year, they wouldn't let my person in the teleprompter room. Remember that? My teleprompter operator was banned from the room. He went out, came back, and they wouldn't let him in.
So I'm standing there without a teleprompter. Isn't it nice to have a president? And actually, they said it was one of my best speeches. I don't know how that happened.
But they're introducing, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the United States -- and I'm looking at the teleprompter screen and it's totally blank. And it was for more than half the speech.
Somehow, they let him in in about half the speech. Probably they did that on purpose, but -- and he should have been leaving the room for a minute. He had to leave the room, come back.
But you remember that? They turned off the escalator. Fortunately, my First Lady was very strong, and I was able to grab her back or another part of her body. It was actually a little bit lower than the back.
And it kept me standing tall -- I was standing very tall. But you remember I was going up in the and I came to a dead stop. This was -- I built a lot of escalators. I put in a lot of escalators. You can have some beauties right over here.
But they don't do that unless somebody wants. And then I got up to make my speech. And I said, I don't have a teleprompter. Can you imagine? And I think I spoke very well. Nice to have a president that doesn't need a teleprompter.
REPORTER: Sir, have you looked at any plans to demolish the Kennedy Center? There was an image of you from Air Force One --
TRUMP: Well, it's -- look, here's the problem with the Kennedy Center. I should be very careful because Bobby's standing right behind me and I cherish that too. I actually like the name of Kennedy and Trump -- Trump and Kennedy because it showed bipartisanship. It showed a Republican Party and a Democrat Party working together. The problem with the Kennedy Center it loses for years it's lost between $60 million and $100 million a year, it loses that every year. It's not an economically sound thing.
Now, with all of that, Carnegie Hall loses money. All of those places lose money. They need massive subsidy in order to sustain. They get very little from Congress.
I'm ready to fix it, make it good. We have a hostile judge. We have a conflicted judge. His wife represents, I think, Barack Hussein Obama, but Biden, represents Kamala, represents Democrats. She has a different name, so most people don't know that, but we're able to figure it out.
But we have a very hostile judge. As I understand it, he gave us the right to go and do the job finally after a week. I could have started this job seven months ago. As you noticed, a big portion of ceiling fell down two days ago, almost killed a security guard, missed him.
The place is a dump. It's been a dump for years. It's lost money for years. I can turn it around, fix it. But the question is, somebody's going to have to subsidize that for years to come because palaces of the arts lose tremendous amounts of money.
The Kennedy Center for 25 years has lost a tremendous amount of money. And all I'm saying, I don't mind doing the job, but if I do the job, I think the Trump administration, including Bobby, but the Trump administration should be recognized. Why should I raise and put up and do all of this work? Not only building it, which I'll do a better job building it than anybody else, anybody in America.
But why should I do everything and then for the rest of my life have to go out and raise money because -- but why should I do everything and then for the rest of my life have to go out and raise money because by nature, by the nature of that type of an operation, you lose anywhere from 50 to 100, maybe even $150 million a year.
REPORTER: But, sir --
TRUMP: I think if I do that, excuse me, I think if I do that --
REPORTER: Why you want your name on the memorial --
TRUMP: Because we should be recognized. We -- the Trump administration if I'm willing and the administration is willing, we have a lot of people working very hard on it to save it. I can save it easily.
But why should we be doing that and then raise money for the rest of our lives to keep it afloat because that's what you have to do if we get no recognition?
I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center because nobody else can do it -- wait a minute, I already raised $258 million from Congress and they gave it to me because it's me, in order to rebuild it and fix it. The problem is once it's built it's going to lose a hundred million dollars a year and it was losing a lot of money.
Before I got there, you know, people said, oh, Trump got there. No, no, I came there to save it. The problem is we had a very hostile judge. We have a very outstanding board, the board is among the most successful people in the country and they vote.
We have a congresswoman who's, you know, a person that never did a thing in her life, frankly. Never did anything constructive. All she does is complain. But saving the Kennedy Center is very, very tough.
A tremendous amount of effort. Once it's built -- and I'll build it great, get it done on time, like that building on time, under budget. It's going to be great.
Like your heliport outside. It's already -- it's two months ahead of schedule. It's going to open. They're going to have an official opening on the 21st with the first helicopter landing, et cetera. And it's beautiful.
Everybody -- in fact, they were going to sue me on the heliport, and then they saw how beautiful it was, and they decided not to sue. The same group that goes around suing everybody to stop progress.
But if we're going to save the Kennedy Center, I think the Trump administration should be given recognition for doing so.
REPORTER: Was it appropriate for your son to accept the gift of the payment of some of his wedding festivities?
TRUMP: Well, it's totally -- it's totally allowed. And a lot of people have parties, but it's totally allowed. But as I understand it, he paid him back. He didn't want to have that. So I hear he paid him back.
A person that he knows, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That's very common. I've heard of many people given wedding parties.
I've given -- wait a minute. I've given -- well, I don't know. Maybe you didn't do a background check. But I've given wedding parties for numerous people.
They get married. I give them a party. I give them parties at beautiful places like Mar-a-Lago and others. But I've given many.
With all of that being said, I understand that Don's paid them back.
REPORTER: Mr. President (INAUDIBLE) TRUMP: No, I heard about that. I actually heard that, when I heard the story, I asked about it. He said, no, I'm paying it back, Dad. So, and that was a while ago. So I heard he's paying.
But I have to say, though, you know, giving a wedding party is pretty common. Yeah.
REPORTER: Mr. President, on the ban, what does that mean in practice? Are you taking away their badges? Are you banning them from the pool? What does this actually mean?
TRUMP: When you say the ban, which ban? You know, you know how many bans I'm involved in? I got more bans going. I've got more bans going.
REPORTER: What does that mean in practice? Are you taking away their badges? Are you banning them from the pool? Are you banning them from the Oval Office? What does that mean?
TRUMP: I still don't know --
REPORTER: The ban on media outlets.
TRUMP: Oh, the ban on the free press, right? Very simple ban. 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, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I'd love it.
Look, they're very dishonest people. They write in a very dishonest way. ABC Fake News gave me $16 million that was agreed to -- $16 million that I won from ABC News because George Slopidopoulos wrote incorrect, so --
CBS gave me $38 million because they broadcast Kamala Harris on "60 Minutes", and the question bore no relationship to what she said. You saw that.
I'm right now suing BBC because they have the granddaddy of them all. They have where I said, walk freely and patriotically, having to do with January 6th, and they put horrible fighting words into my mouth. With me actually saying it, I said, I never said that.
And when we checked, it was -- BBC actually changed my language, and they put words in my mouth. That's the furthest I've seen.
So that's -- we have numerous lawsuits. We'll be suing these people, too.
But the ban is because they are fake news.
[16:35:00]
They cannot write the truth.
And "Politico" is very bad. And "Politico", frankly, I think what they did was illegal. They accepted the world's largest subscription. They got $8 million or something like that for a subscription to their stupid, lightweight paper.
But I will say, "Politico" and MS NOW, which nobody ever heard of, and CNN, which is doing very poorly, the reason they do so poorly is because they have no credibility. And if they had credibility, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
So, we are banning them. Yes, we are. And there may be others to follow. Thank you very much, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys.
HUNT: All right, we have been listening to President Trump in the Oval Office discussing at some length with reporters as he took questions his decision or claim that he is going to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
Now, CNN has just issued a statement about what the president had said. Let's read it.
A CNN spokesman says this: CNN stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting. We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should the ban which President Trump threatened to go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally protected right.
It's also worth noting that there's a statement out now from the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press as well, and they say this: A ban like this would be flatly unconstitutional. The First Amendment is clear that once the White House invites in some journalists, it can't ban others because it doesn't like their reporting. This is textbook viewpoint discrimination and will be quickly struck down by the courts if challenged.
So again, the president was asked a number of questions, including by NBC's Kelly O'Donnell at the top there. He called these outlets fake news. He said to the reporters in the room, you know how fake your reporting is. He also said that there was no particular reason, that's a quote, for the ban coming today.
He said this was cumulative stories. He also criticized other outlets, including "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times". He called both of those outlets, quote, "disgusting". He said that they may be removing those papers from the grounds of the White House, but he was not yet at the point where he was going to ban their reporters from the grounds. It's also worth underscoring that our reporters have been reporting through the afternoon from the White House grounds as usual, and we don't have details yet about what this may entail.
We want to bring our panel back in here, Kristen, and Jamie are on set, joined by former DNC senior adviser Xochitl Hinojosa and Republican strategist Brad Todd. They're both CNN political commentators. CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali is also here.
Jamie Gangel, let me start with you. Obviously, this president has made a campaign against the news media, part of his political identity from the beginning. He has used the phrase fake news for many of the 10 years plus that he has been on our public stage.
We have seen in this second Trump administration additional steps in places like the Pentagon, for example. There was also, of course, the dispute with the Associated Press over the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
What does it say to you that the president is doing this now and what are the implications?
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's really the question, because the other thing, when he was asked why today, he said he was sick of it. And I think it's important to underscore what you just said, which is this is not new. His attacks on the press are not new, going back to the very first campaign.
Here are some questions we have to ask. Was there something particular that triggered this today, or was it really just cumulative? Did senior White House officials know this was coming, or were they blindsided?
Presidents get frustrated. All politicians get frustrated. But taking this kind of step, even with what we've seen at the Pentagon, with Jim Acosta, with the AP, this is beyond the realm. And the threat of others to follow, even though it's unconstitutional, even though I think the courts will overturn it, it is ominous.
HUNT: We've also seen that as a theme from the Trump administration, to take action then that requires litigation, action in court that takes a certain amount of time.
I want to return to kind of the broader themes here as well, because, of course, questions about what this means in the context of our democracy writ large.
[16:40:08]
As we've noted, as CNN has put out in a statement, free speech is protected by the First Amendment. It is protected by the Constitution, the document that undergirds the democracy that we all live by. And there are always questions when freedom of the press is limited about authoritarianism and what that means broadly.
And one person we could perhaps learn a little bit from today, at the very least, it stands in contrast to what we heard there for about a half an hour from the Oval Office from President Trump is Republican president, former Republican President Ronald Reagan, who talked about the free press and warned about what could happen when it starts to be infringed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Without a free press, democracy won't work and all of our other rights would be in jeopardy. Thomas Jefferson is often quoted at gatherings such as this as saying, were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Of course, he said that before he was president. One of the first institutions to be attacked by tyrants, whether they're dictators of the left or right, is the press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Ronald Reagan there. One of the first institutions to be attacked by tyrants, whether they're dictators of the left or of the right, is the free press.
Tim Naftali is with us.
Tim, can you talk a little bit about the historical implications of this, what we have seen before and not seen, and what impact it may have?
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Kasie, there are moments when making a parallel to a previous president weakens the enormity of the implications of the current presidency. Almost every president has detested elements of the press during their presidency. Every president thinks they're doing pretty much everything right.
But it's what they do about their anger and their disappointment that distinguishes or differentiates presidencies. President Trump reminded us today, not just by his social media post, but by the way in which he took advantage of the added press coverage that his post created for him today. And by the way, I think that's part of the explanation for why he's doing it. He needs as much coverage as possible.
Today, he presented a new explanation for some of the failures that he's experiencing as president. This president has presented himself to the American people in a way that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and even Richard Nixon never did, which is to say that he is the truth, that everything that they hear that does not line up with his explanation of reality is fake.
No president before this one has sought to control information in this manner. They've spun, every White House spins, every White House wants you to see the fact that the glass is half full and not half empty, but they admit that the glass isn't full.
This is a president every day who says the glass is full. And if you don't believe that, you are a liar. And any organization that covers those lies is fake news.
That's something new in our history. Yes, FDR was angry at the conservative press.
Yes, John F. Kennedy canceled the active subscriptions for "The New York Herald Tribune". He didn't ban "The New York Herald Tribune" from his press conferences. Yes, Nixon fulminated in private about "The Washington Post". That's
all true. But not one of them stood in front of the American people and said, I am the truth, and I am the one you listen to, and no one else should be listened to. And if anybody disagrees with me, they are a liar. And at times, he's even used the term enemy of the people.
That makes this president more disdainful, more contemptuous of our First Amendment rights. And when I say are, I mean as citizens, not just as members of the press, our First Amendment rights, he's more contemptuous of them than any modern predecessor by far.
HUNT: Tim, as I'm listening to you, you mentioned Richard Nixon, of course, the Watergate era. And you also talked about how this president has tried to present himself as truth. One of the things that that requires is to convince people that they can't find truth someplace else.
And I think if we look at some of the numbers around trust in the media, we can kind of paint that picture a little bit. If you go back to 1974 and you look, according to Gallup, at how much people trusted, basically, the news media, OK, 48 percent trusted the news media a fair amount, and 21 percent trusted the news media a great deal. That would go on to peak in 1976.
But then as you fast forward, we can look at 2014, right? This is right around the time when President Trump is coming onto the stage. Ten percent said they had a great deal of trust, and 30 percent had a fair amount of trust. So that's only 40 percent, right? We're below 50.
But now let's look here in December of 2025, which are some of our more recent numbers. A great deal, six percent, OK, so we dropped to six percent have a great deal, now together with a fair amount, that's still around 40 percent.
But Tim, how does what the president says about this impact what Americans believe around this, the trust they're able to have in our institutions and in our democracy?
NAFTALI: In any democracy, a healthy democracy, people come to understand that good people disagree and that it's healthy to disagree. And that people can take a set of facts and come to different interpretations, and that's great. You want that.
That's what makes societies better, stronger, more efficient. In unhealthy democracies, or worse than that, in authoritarian regimes, people aren't allowed to believe that the center of power has made a mistake. The center of power is afraid of people disagreeing with their facts, let alone interpretations.
There's a fragility to those kinds of organizations, and that fragility is defended usually by repression. We're not there. We're not in an authoritarian regime. We have a Supreme Court, and occasionally we have a Congress.
But the problem here is that we have a president, I would argue, who is acting in the style that is reminiscent of authoritarian regimes of years gone by, where the regime is so afraid of the truth and of dispute and debate that it won't allow any deviation from its particular daily story. And that's the problem.
Look, the president of the United States is not saying that conservatism is the truth, he just attacked Fox News. He's not saying -- he's saying that he alone is the source of truth, and that's what makes him unique in our modern history.
Richard Nixon was really angry at the press, and Richard Nixon very much wanted to use the FBI. And look, I'm not suggesting that Richard Nixon embraced the entire media, but he understood that it was part of the American constitutional system.
That bothered him, but he knew it was essential. He knew that we needed debate in this country to be our best selves. I don't think the current president shares that view.
HUNT: All right. Tim, stand by for me.
I want to reset the table here briefly because we have Kristen Holmes standing by for us at the White House and Brian Stelter also standing by as well.
And, Brian, why don't I just start with you to walk us through again, and we read it here once already, but CNN has responded to the president's post. Bring us up to speed on what we're here at our network and what else you're hearing.
STELTER: That's right. And if you look at the president's post, it's pretty heated. It's pretty incendiary. It has that kind of all caps voice that we know from the president. The reaction, though, from the newsrooms that he's targeting is pretty cool, calm, and collected. waiting to see if there's actually any follow-through to what the president is claiming.
But clearly there is a constitutional issue at play here if there is any attempt to remove specific reporters from the White House because of coverage the president does not like. And so, CNN's statement makes that point and says we have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should that ban that the president threatened go ahead, quote, "it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally protected right."
Executives at "Politico", MS working through this as well right now, trying to assess what options they have and if they should say anything because, as you've been pointing out, Kasie, Kristen Holmes is there, our team is there, just trying to have a normal Friday afternoon.
But this is anything but normal, given the president clearly wants his White House team to follow through and implement a ban.
[16:50:03] And I'll mention, in the past 20 minutes or so, we've heard from at least four of the leading press freedom and free of speech groups in the country all speaking out, all very concerned about the prospect that the president's words will be turned into actions.
I'll give an example from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression saying, when the White House opens its doors to the press, it must comply with the First Amendment. He can't ban outlets from the White House just because he doesn't like their reporting or commentary.
And here's the Freedom of the Press Foundation. It says: It would be difficult to imagine any more blatant violation of the First Amendment than to ban news outlets for criticizing the government.
So that's the reaction so far from press freedom groups as we wait to see if there's any actual follow-through. And thankfully, our cameras are there beaming back the pictures. So, if something happens, we'll be able to show you.
HUNT: We'll be there. And Brian Steltr, you've got a Friday News dump on your hands. I'm sure you're going to be working through the night tonight. Stand by for us, if you don't mind.
Joining us now, Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, Jake Auchincloss, who also has had the distinction of serving our country in uniform.
Congressman, thank you very much for being here.
Considering that service that you gave in defense of our country, which is, of course, built on the Constitution, including its First Amendment, what's your response to what the president has said he's going to do today?
REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): A flagrant violation of the First Amendment, and all news outlets, first and foremost Fox, should boycott in solidarity, because without free and open coverage of our government, the Republic is under duress.
And we have to emphasize that this is happening during wartime. This is happening when the president is waging an illegal war, a war that is failing, a war that is expensive and unpopular with the American public. And this is a recipe for further encroachments upon our freedom, when you have an authoritarian-minded president waging war, now trying to muzzle criticism.
HUNT: Congressman, is there any action available to Congress here, of course, stipulating Democrats control neither branch, although they may, come next year?
AUCHINCLOSS: It underscores to me the urgency for us to protect the integrity of the midterm elections, because this is the playbook, is you saw it with Orban, you see it in Poland with the Law and Justice Party, is leaning on the media, leaning on the courts, leaning on elections to create what's called competitive authoritarianism, where there is the facade of elections, but those elections are not truly free and fair.
Democrats need to ensure not only that we win these elections in November, but that we ensure that they are free and fair, that every ballot is fairly tabulated, whether that's hacking of secretary of state websites, whether that's deployment of uniformed personnel to the polling locations, whether that is intentional confusion about mail-in balloting -- we have to address these issues so that people have the free and fair election that they deserve.
HUNT: What impact does the president taking this action, and does the president more broadly attacking the news media and its ability to report freely and fairly, what impact does that have on Americans' trust that our elections are free and fair?
AUCHINCLOSS: It undercuts it. And your previous I guess I think said it very well, that what is unique about Trump is his declaration that he is truth unto itself. And traditionally, this country has tried to define truth in the public realm through at least four different institutions, through elections, through the law, particularly common law, through a free and open press, and through science. Those are four institutions that this big republic traditionally uses to try to grope its way towards a consensus about what is fact.
And it's interesting to note that he has attacked all four of those institutions, science, media, courts, and elections, because he wants to declare that he is truth and there is no other source of truth. So, this is just yet another blow in that narcissistic dynamic and one that we have to make plain to the American public and that we have to secure these elections against.
HUNT: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thanks very much for your time today, sir. Always appreciate it.
All right, our panel is back. Tim Naftali is still with us.
Brad Todd, of course, we often talk about President Trump as a master TV programmer, someone who is trying to control the media narrative at all or many times, certainly. And you can look at this announcement today potentially through those terms.
The president's approval rating is not good. He is by all accounts essentially losing the midterms. Is this not an acknowledgment that he is losing?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We found a way to get CNN to cover a press conference live for 40 minutes, which has not been possible in recent times. I do think, however, this is not good ball control for him.
[16:55:00]
One of the things in a campaign strategy is you want ball control and you want to keep the issue conversation in a place that favors you.
And he did that for a while today in this press conference, talked about no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, his border success. But then he veers off into this territory that I think independent voters may see as chaotic. And I think he's really got to resist the temptation to take actions that make independents think he's chaotic and stay on things that make them think he's fighting for them.
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I also think that his administration has enabled him to get to this point. We saw the Justice Department, not this year but the year prior to that, start subpoenaing reporters and reverse former DOJ precedent. And so now there has been this overall attack in the media in his administration.
And so, you know, they are trying to subpoena a reporter from their sources. They're trying to ban CNN. And I just want to remind people also, he does not have a press secretary. There is a press secretary role in the White House that is in charge of the relationship with the media but is also in charge of getting out information to the American people when we are at a time at war, when we are at a time where gas prices are up.
This is a critical time in our nation's history, and the role of press secretary and the role that that staff has in order to get that information out is critical. And I would say, just someone who has been in the media for quite some time and been a spokesperson, if you have a boss or if you have a party that is attacking the First Amendment, why would you ever want to serve that president? Why would you ever want to serve an administration that is not going to be for the First Amendment?
That is -- that is against Republican values. So, I just find it interesting that, you know, the moment that we are in right now and what and the attacks on the media and I am just flummoxed on how Republicans have failed to call out Donald Trump for banning members of the media from the White House.
If a Democrat did that, they would probably there would hell would break loose when it came to Republicans.
HUNT: Kristen?
KRISTEN SOLTIS-ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I think part of the reason why Donald Trump loves to go back to this fight against the media, which is not new. He did not start it today. He did not start it this decade. He has been doing it his entire time in public life, is because he feels it's very safe terrain for him. He feels like, look, his job approval numbers, he may be at 35 percent or so, but those Gallup numbers we just looked at, you know, trust in the media is lower than that.
It's not to excuse what he's doing and it's not even to say that if one out of four independents in that Gallup poll trust the media. That doesn't mean that those who don't want to see them banned from the White House. I do think that this is a I think describing it as poor ball control is a perfect way to describe it.
But I think it's important to just understand the context. When Richard Nixon was hating the media back in the '70s, as you noted, Americans really liked the media. The president versus the media, the president was not always going to win.
Now Americans just have so much distrust in everything that something like this can feel like it's a bit of noise, even if it is something where in reality the stakes are quite high.
HUNT: Yeah, and, Tim Naftali, let me bring you back in on that, of course, as someone who has studied quite extensively the life and times. of Richard Nixon. And you've, of course, mentioned him in the course of the conversation we've been having today.
But it does play into this bigger picture question about trust in institutions and Americans' ability to feel as though they are part of a common fabric with other Americans, even if they may disagree with them. And of course, having sources of information that everybody is willing to trust to a certain degree seems like a key part of that.
How do you see that here?
NAFTALI: Well, I mean, the start of the erosion of public trust in institutions is Vietnam and then Watergate. And so, the lying by the U.S. Government about how things were going in Vietnam, coupled with the lying by President Nixon about his abuse of power and participation in a criminal cover-up, led many Americans to begin to doubt trust that they had developed in World War II, those who were old enough.
And we've never recovered it. This is not something that went up and down. The only time that a president -- well, there are two times when a president enjoyed bipartisan support, and it was two Bushes. It was the first President Bush during the Gulf War and the second President Bush after 9/11. But those are unusual moments.
Since Watergate, most Americans only trust the president they voted for. And that's a big change in our society. And if presidents can't get bipartisan respect, other institutions can't either. And we are facing this respect deficit. And a cynic, I would argue like the current president of the United States, can take advantage of that cynicism and drive us apart. And that's what's happening.
HUNT: Really important point to end on here, trying to press back against the cynicism and figure out a way to trust each other again.
All right. Tim Naftali, thank you. Thanks to my panel as well.
"THE LEAD WITH OF JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.
