United Kingdom

London, 22 September 2026. For the British press, the case pitting CNN, MS NOW, and Politico against Donald Trump is playing out as much behind the scenes of the White House as in the federal court in Washington. The Daily Mail and The Independent first reconstruct the mechanics of the decision: according to the Wall Street Journal, cited by the Daily Mail, it was a close adviser to the president, Natalie Harp, nicknamed "the human printer", who showed Donald Trump on Friday excerpts deemed critical broadcast by MS NOW. His anger, which "had been simmering for months" according to the same source, would have then reached a "boiling point", precipitating in a few hours the announcement of an exclusion "with immediate effect" of the three editorial teams.

As of Saturday, the accreditations are deactivated: CNN correspondent Betsy Klein is photographed on the sidewalk, empty badge in hand, while the MS NOW and Politico teams are turned back at the gates. On Monday, the three media outlets file a complaint with the federal court, invoking the First Amendment and denouncing a decision made "without notice or procedure". Vice President JD Vance, cited by The Independent, defends a "totally appropriate" measure: he claims not to be targeting press freedom but to be removing "privileged access" to media outlets that, in his view, practice "far-left propaganda".

On the same day, the television pool - Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC - suspends its coverage of the president, leaving his trip to the UN General Assembly without images on the major channels. The White House strikes back by touting its official application on X, promising "the information that matters, coming directly from the Trump administration" - a communication that, The Independent notes, leads to the White House being compared by internet users to "state media", one of them estimating that it "would make Vladimir Putin proud".

A sign of the contradictions in the case, highlighted by The Independent: Melania Trump's office accredited the same CNN journalist the next day to cover an event by the First Lady in New York - a loophole that Brian Stelter, of CNN, interprets as the beginning of a generalized circumvention of the ban. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before the federal court in Washington.