Belgium

Brussels, September 24, 2026. The Belgian press first notes a discrepancy: a federal order issued in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, and journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico still standing in front of the White House door on Thursday morning. La Libre Belgique and La Dernière Heure headline this contrast, "still denied access... despite a contrary court decision", more than the legal content of the judgment itself.

Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ordered to "return, restore, and immediately reinstate" access for the three newsrooms, excluded since Donald Trump's announcement on September 18. He estimated that the revocation of their accreditation was done without "regular procedure in accordance with the Constitution": according to VRT, the general rule requires that the individuals concerned be informed and heard before being denied a protected right. The national security argument invoked by the administration was dismissed due to a lack of evidence; the criterion of "reprehensible coverage" cited in the letters sent to the media was deemed too vague. Timothy Kelly, appointed by Donald Trump himself in 2017, had already imposed the return of a CNN journalist excluded by the same White House in 2018.

The discrepancy between the order and its implementation fuels the article: on Thursday, the day Donald Trump received Xi Jinping, the journalists from the three media outlets were refused entry. The lawyer for the newsrooms, Ted Boutrous, welcomed a decision that defends "press freedom, regular procedure, and the rule of law", without this changing, in the short term, the situation on the ground.

The Belgian press recalls the context: Donald Trump had accused the three media outlets of continuously spreading "fake news", without providing evidence. In solidarity, four other major channels from the presidential pool, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox, had suspended their own coverage of the presidency. The White House has also launched its own channel, "Trump TV", promising continuous coverage. For the Belgian newsrooms, the episode illustrates less a settled legal debate than the uncertainty about the effective execution of court decisions in the face of the American executive.