Federal judge orders White House to restore press passes for CNN, MS NOW, Politico after Trump revoked them

Judge Timothy Kelly of the US District Court in Washington ordered the White House to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore the White House 'hard pass' press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked on or about September 18, 2026."

The judge granted a temporary restraining order for 14 days that will block the ban and allow the White House to officially reinstate the press credentials. This comes after Trump announced on Truth Social last week that he would be "banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them 'alive.' Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House."

After the ban took place, the outlets announced that they would sue the Trump administration over the ban, citing their First Amendment rights. In a joint statement, the outlets said the filing would be to “protect their First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”

Critics of the move from the outlets have pointed out that more than 400 journalists had their press passes revoked by the Biden administration. Additionally, under the Obama administration, a Fox News reporter was secretly monitored by the Department of Justice, and the FBI called him a "criminal co-conspirator," despite the reporter, James Rosen, not being charged with any crime.