Jake Tapper had a blunt message for Donald Trump after the president announced he was banning CNN from the White House: “It’s not going to happen.”
The CNN anchor dismissed the move as an “unconstitutional tantrum,” accusing Trump of trying to “distract” the public and press from a steady stream of bad news surrounding his administration ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump, 80, banned CNN, as well as MS NOW and Politico from the White House—“effective immediately”—in a ranting Truth Social post on Friday for reporting “fake news,” though he didn’t specify which stories specifically set him off.
“If there is any strategy to this, and it’s not clear that there is, it is that the president would rather today’s focus be about this unconstitutional tantrum than about any of the facts that we cover every day—prices, polls, the ongoing war,” said a clearly miffed Tapper.
“That is not going to happen. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot ban what I’m saying to you right now,” he continued.
It’s not clear exactly what the ban would entail, though Trump said he didn’t want journalists from the three outlets in the White House, or “here,” apparently referring to the Oval Office.
As of Friday afternoon, it was also unclear how the ban would be implemented, and journalists from all three outlets remained on the White House grounds.
Tapper pointed out that news about the Pentagon and the Iran war didn’t stop when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth banned “non-sycophantic reporters” from his press briefings.
“These petulant bans don’t work,” the longtime CNN anchor declared.
He then pointed to CNN’s upcoming exclusive report about a military AI mistake that nearly triggered a war with China. “That’s a story that the White House doesn’t like,” said Tapper. “It’s a story the White House doesn’t want you to know.”
Trump indicated that his ban might be lifted if the media “straightens out,” said Tapper. “He doesn’t want straighten. He wants the news to bend. He wants the news to warp around his views, his desires.”
One Trump critic on social media responded to the president’s anti-press edict quipping: “Nothing screams ‘freedom’ like banning the press for hurting your feelings.” Another posted: “Sounds like some s— China or Russia would do.”
