President Donald Trump‘s administration and the president himself have had several contentious moments with journalists leading up to the 100th day of his second term.
Trump has focused on deportations, border security, enacting tariffs on foreign countries and major cuts to federal spending in his first 100 days, all of which have drawn media scrutiny.
He’s also granted interviews with Fox News, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, journalist Sharyl Attkisson, and an upcoming sit-down with ABC News’ Terry Moran on Tuesday night.
Here’s a look back at the administration’s top media moments and shake-ups since Trump’s inauguration.
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The White House made waves after it announced The Associated Press (AP) would be barred from certain Oval Office and Air Force One events because it had refused to use the “Gulf of America” terminology after Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
The AP issued a statement in February saying that it had been barred from a signing event.
“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon, AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement.
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The president has clashed with CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins numerous times since taking office.
Shortly after Trump took office, the president clashed with Collins during remarks about the Washington, D.C., plane crash, during which he accused the Biden administration of lowering aviation standards and suggested that Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies may have played a role in the deadly crash.
Collins objected to Trump’s rhetoric, calling him out for “blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter.”
As Collins asked him if he was getting ahead of the investigation into the crash, Trump disagreed and added, “I think that’s not a very smart question. I’m surprised, coming from you.”
During another exchange with the CNN reporter in early February that focused on the war between Russia and Ukraine, Collins pressed the president on whether he trusted Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Trump argued that he wanted peace and told Collins a negotiation to stop the war “should have been done by Biden years ago. This should have never been allowed to happen. I know he’s a friend of yours.”
“He’s a friend of CNN. That’s why nobody watches CNN anymore, because they have no credibility,” Trump added.
Most recently, Trump went after Collins during an exchange in the Oval Office about deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, during which he took questions alongside El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Trump welcomed Bukele to the White House, and as Collins tried to get in a question, Trump said he wanted to hear from the “very low-rated anchor.” Collins ignored the slam and asked Trump if he would ask Bukele to assist in bringing Garcia back to the U.S. after he was mistakenly deported.
As he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer Collins, Trump accused the CNN reporter of asking the question with “slant.”
“They don’t know what’s happening, that’s why nobody is watching them,” Trump said. Earlier in the conversation with Bukele, Trump said of CNN, “I think they hate our country” and accused it of stifling reporting about decreased illegal border crossings under his administration.
CNN host Dana Bash took time to defend her network against Trump’s attacks shortly after press conference on her show.
“I just want to say for the record, since we heard President Trump say in the Oval Office that CNN hates our country. CNN does not hate our country. That should go without saying. I’ve been here for 32 years, and I see a rhetorical device in him trying to — to say such a thing,” she added.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted AP reporter Josh Boak for a question he posed to her about tariffs, calling his questioning “insulting.”
“I’m sorry, have you paid a tariff? Because I have,” Boak asked as Leavitt argued that it was not Trump that was pushing “tax hikes” through tariffs. Boak added, “They don’t get charged on foreign companies. They get charged on the importers.”
“And I think it’s insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press,” Leavitt said, moving on to another reporter.
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The White House called out MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace during a press briefing that followed Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress after the left-wing network host criticized the president’s decision to feature a young cancer survivor during his speech.
DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, received a standing ovation from a majority of the congressional audience after Trump instructed Secret Service director Sean Curran to make Daniel an honorary Secret Service agent. However, many Democrats remained seated during the standing ovation.
Wallace attempted to draw a connection between Daniel and the January 6 Capitol riot.
“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer,” she said. “But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters, and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide, and I hope he isn’t one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”
“Last night, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace disgustingly looped in a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer into an attack on the president over January 6,” she said. “It’s sad and frankly pathetic that Democrats and liberals in the legacy media continue to allow their hatred for the president to override their love for our country.”
Trump suggested the MSNBC host should resign over the comments.
The president has continued to attack CBS News and “60 Minutes” since filing a lawsuit against the network in October, alleging the network practiced “deceptive conduct” in its interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.
CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, and Trump are set to begin mediation in his $20 billion election interference lawsuit, Fox News Digital confirmed earlier in April.
The president has accused CBS of aiding his 2024 Democratic opponent through deceptive editing one month before he and Harris faced off in the presidential election. The saga began when Harris was widely mocked for a “word salad” answer she gave to “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker during a preview of the interview on “Face the Nation,” and CBS then aired a different answer to the same question during a primetime special.
The president criticized the network on April 13 in a Truth Social post and said CBS should pay a “big price.”
“I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount, over their fraudulent, beyond recognition, reporting. They did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn’t work for them. They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing,” Trump wrote on social media after criticizing a “60 Minutes” segment.
Trump squashed rumors of a cabinet meeting clash between Elon Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March, telling a reporter he was a “troublemaker” for bringing it up.
After Trump signed an executive order to create the White House Task Force for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the Oval Office, NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez tried to ask about Musk and Rubio.
“No clash. I was there — you’re just a troublemaker,” Trump said. “And you’re not supposed to be asking that question, because we’re talking about the World Cup.”
After Gutierrez revealed he was with NBC, Trump added, “Ugh, no wonder.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at her first press briefing that the Trump administration was rolling out major changes to make room for newer, less traditional media voices in the briefing room.
She said the briefing room would be opened up to “new media voices who produce news-related content” and outlets who haven’t been welcomed into the briefing room previously. Leavitt told reporters these changes were being made to keep in line with President Donald Trump’s “revolutionary media approach” that he deployed during his campaign in speaking to popular podcast hosts and social media influencers.
Leavitt announced in February that the White House press team will now determine the rotations and which outlets get access, upending decades of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WCHA) making such decisions.
She clarified that legacy media outlets that have been prominent within the WHCA will still have a presence at briefings, and that the five major television networks will still be relied on to broadcast White House events.
Leavitt argued the WHCA had represented an entrenched monopoly of “D.C. journalists” who no longer represented the wider media landscape and how Americans get their news.
“A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly over the privilege of press access at the White House. All journalists, outlets and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table,” she said.
The White House decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels said in a statement. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Opening the WHCA annual dinner in D.C. on Saturday, Daniels lamented that it had been an “extremely difficult” year for the press and called out Trump for not attending.
When concluding the event, Daniels referenced the president’s frequent criticism of the media and defended his profession, saying journalists are not the political “opposition” to the Trump administration nor the “enemy of the people.”
Fox News’ Kristine Parks, David Rutz, Rachel del Guidice, Brian Flood, Lindsay Kornick and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
