Trump launches Trump TV in the middle of a war with the media
Major television networks, including Fox, suspend joint coverage of presidential events to protest against the veto on CNN, MS NOW and 'Politico'
WashingtonDonald Trump's White House launched Trump TV this Monday, a video channel that broadcasts 24 hours a day via YouTube. The launch comes amid escalating tension between the United States president and several media outlets, after Trump announced on Friday that he was banning CNN, MSNBC, and Politico from the White House.
The new channel offers speeches, events, and other content related to the Trump administration. The White House presents it as a continuous broadcast, with videos updated in real time. The first broadcasts have included recordings of previous events by the president, such as the speech Trump gave on July 3rd at Mount Rushmore. In this way, the channel is presented as a direct communication channel from the administration to the public, outside of traditional media.
The launch of Trump TV coincides with the decision by the main United States television networks to suspend joint coverage of the president. ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and even Trump's friendly network, Fox News, have announced that they will stop participating in the presidential pool system –the group of journalists that follows the American president daily– after the White House denied access to a CNN representative this Monday.
In a joint statement, the networks have argued that the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate and independent information about the government's activity. "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate and independent information about their government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it disagrees with its news coverage," they argued.
The legal teams for CNN, MSNBC, and Politico have already announced that they will take legal action against Trump's veto. The three media outlets consider that the veto violates the freedom of the press guarantees enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Most likely, the litigation will lead to a long case regarding the scope and limits of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and information.
Trump has said on Truth Social that, if the judge is in favor of the class action lawsuit, he plans to appeal the ruling before the Court of Appeals. "Practically all stories about me, or anything related to me, are negative, erroneous and, in many cases, dangerous for our country! No matter how great my achievements are, they trivialize and despise them," the Republican wrote, who has labeled journalists as "clowns." The Republican made the post after an event held at the White House was broadcast without sound because there was no journalist from the pool.
War against the media
The response agreed upon by the major television networks represents the biggest clash the press has experienced with the American president since he returned to power. The pressure against the media has been a constant of this second administration. Shortly after returning to the White House, Trump already prohibited the Associated Press (AP) agency from being in the pool of the Oval Office because it refused to use the new terminology he had imposed for the Gulf of Mexico: "Gulf of America". At the end of a long litigation, the courts ruled in favor of AP and it was able to return to accessing the pool.
Last year Trump also tried to cancel the show of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and threatened to revoke the license of all television stations that provided "negative" coverage of his presidency. Beyond the threats, Trump has also filed several legal lawsuits against major networks and headlines in order to wear them down economically. The first was against CBS in October 2024 just before he reached the presidency, and the second was in December of that same year against the ABC television network.