AP Fires Back at Trump for Blocking Access for a 3rd Day: ‘Plain Violation of the First Amendment’

Trump barred the outlet for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”

Donald Trump
Donald Trump (Getty Images)

President Trump’s media team blocked the Associated Press from covering one of his press conferences for the third straight day on Thursday, continuing a saga that started with the outlet declining to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s abrupt renaming, “Gulf of America.”

The AP was barred from covering a press conference with the president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a statement on Thursday, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said it was “a deeply troubling escalation of the administration’s continued efforts to punish the Associated Press for its editorial decisions.”

“It is a plain violation of the First Amendment, and we urge the Trump administration in the strongest terms to stop this practice,” Pace continued. 

By blocking the AP, Pace added the Trump Administration was doing an “incredible disservice to the billions of people who rely on The Associated Press for nonpartisan news.”

The AP was first denied access to a press conference President Trump held in the Oval Office on Tuesday alongside Elon Musk (and his son X Æ A-Xii).

Pace said the AP was blocked because it was not adhering to the name Gulf of America, after President Trump signed an executive order last month renaming the gulf — which touches Mexico, the southern U.S. and Cuba — on government maps, contracts and other documents.

Soon after the president’s executive order last month, Amanda Barrett, the AP’s vice president of news, standards and inclusion, made an announcement as to why the outlet would continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico.

“The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” Barrett explained. “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”

During a press briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the AP’s ban from the Oval Office a day prior, saying it is a “privilege to cover this White House.”

“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” Leavitt said. “That is an invitation that is given.”

A number of other outlets beyond the AP, including Bloomberg and The New York Times, have said they will continue to refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico.

On Wednesday, Leavitt was bemused as to why the AP or any other news organization would not call it the Gulf of America. “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that,” she said.





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