Donald Trump sued by AP for banning journalists from White House and Mar-a-Lago

The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials on Friday after the organisation's journalists were banned from Mar-a-Lago, Air Force One and even the White House for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.'

The Associated Press has launched a legal battle against three officials from the Trump administration this Friday, following a ban on its journalists from Mar-a-Lago, Air Force One, and even the White House. The ban was imposed after they refused to adopt President Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."

In a move to defend press freedom, the AP is invoking the First Amendment in a plea to a federal judge at the U.S. District Court in Washington DC, to lift the 10-day exclusion of its reporters.

The explosive lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of trying to dictate media language by prohibiting journalists from covering significant meetings and events that are open to other media outlets.

Previously, the AP had declared it would not conform to the president's executive order issued last month, which sought to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico and rename Mount Denali, North America's tallest mountain, back to its former title of Mount McKinley, named after the past U.S. president. The peak is situated in Alaska, reports the Mirror US.

"The press and the people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," stated the AP in its lawsuit. The suit names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as defendants.

"This targeted attack on the AP's editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment," the agency said. "This court should remedy it immediately."

The agency argued that Trump's team is censoring the news agency by preventing the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago and denying reporters their usual spot on Air Force One. This was directly linked to its decision not to fully adopt the president's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

On Tuesday, the president stated, "We're going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America."

This week alone saw about 40 news organisations signing a letter organised by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP. "The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American's freedom," the lawsuit reads.

"The AP therefore brings this action to vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution and to prevent the Executive Branch from coercing journalists to report the news using only government-approved language.

"The AP has participated in the White House press pool since its creation over a century ago, which has made it possible for the AP to deliver to the public timely and thorough reporting on the President almost everywhere he goes, which is information critical to the public," the lawsuit states. "On February 11, 2025, without prior notice, White House officials informed the AP that it would be barred from entering certain areas in the White House as a member of the press pool unless the AP began referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, following President Trump's renaming of that body of water in Executive Order 14172. The White House began banning AP journalists from events open to the press pool within hours," the lawsuit details.

The legal team at AP contends that the areas where AP reporters have been excluded are accessible to other press pool members and to the wider press corps with credentials who are not part of the pool.

Furthermore, the AP has highlighted its updated style guideline, which dictates that the media outlet will continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico "by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen."

This policy ensures readers of AP content are clear about which body of water is being referred to.

"This Court should order that the government immediately cease its retaliatory actions against the AP, retaliation which is based solely on the content of the AP's speech, and rescind its denial of the AP's access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other limited spaces when such spaces are made open to other members of the White House press pool," the lawsuit demands. The document further contends that the exclusion also infringes upon the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

"Defendants have not provided, nor could they provide, any compelling reason for their arbitrary denial of the AP's access. Rather, Defendants' actions are impermissibly based on their dislike of the content of the AP's expression and what they perceive as the AP's viewpoint reflected in the content of its expression," the complaint vehemently states.

It's up in the air whether the federal judge will grant the news outlet the desired reprieve. A staggering 4 billion people turn to the AP for news daily, representing approximately half the global population.

The Mirror is among the subscribers to the AP's news wire service and engages in ongoing journalistic collaboration with the agency.