What’s Trump’s Next Move in High-Stakes Standoff With Media 2026

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TOP STORY

WH BANS: NETWORKS STRIKE BACK

President Donald Trump escalated his battle with the media Friday when he announced that he’s decided to ban CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO from the White House. The president admitted there was “no reason” specifically for the ban just “cumulative stories,” and the media organizations responded by filing a federal lawsuit to “immediately restore access” to the affected journalists.

Trump’s media battle has escalated to a whole new level — and that’s what we (and the stack) are looking at today. TV networks have made it clear they’re standing together. Now, all eyes are on the administration for a response — as we wait for the courts to weigh in.

THREE TAKES

CNN’s Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter — TV networks are standing “in solidarity,” Stelter said this morning. ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC released a joint statement this morning in response to Trump’s ban. The networks also decided against replacing CNN in the TV pool, which means “the five networks will not cover Trump’s events designated for pool coverage.” As CNN’s Kaitlan Collins explained, “When the president does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the president that is broadcasting and sharing this footage.” Stelter was slyly pointed with his take: “Last I checked, this president likes to be on camera.” While Trump will still have some cameras on deck, “The pool photographers are still in place, and so are ‘secondary’ TV crews,” there’s a catch: “those crews are not obligated to share their footage.” The White House also apparently attempted to solicit the services of local TV station owner Gray TV, who declined. “Clearly, other newsrooms know they might be next,” Stelter wrote. “Trump has already threatened to ban others.”

CJR’s The Media Today, Jem Bartholomew — Trump’s latest assault on the press is a callback to another attack on the media in another country. Back in December 2018, police in Nicaragua raided the offices of 100% Noticas, a news station in the country that had “been reporting on how police and allied paramilitary forces were ‘spreading terror,’ crushing demonstrations ‘at any cost’” — including firing on protestors. Both the director and news director were arrested and spent 72 days in prison. Last week, Luis Galeano, a Nicaraguan journalist whose work had appeared on the station and who left the country in 2019 for the United States, was detained by ICE. The arrest of Galeano, who “was labeled a ‘traitor to the homeland’ by the Ortega regime and has been subject to what researchers call ‘citizenship deprivation’” has coincided with “eerily similar threats from the government of Israel against Israeli journalists who dared to cover the war in Gaza critically,” Bartholomew noted. It’s not something Trump can easily replicate, because taking citizenship from US citizens is “legally very difficult,” Bartholomew also pointed out, but his administration “has sought to intimidate critics and stifle dissent with threats, lawsuits, subpoenas, regulatory pressure, access constraints, deportation efforts, and more” — including bans like last week’s.

Townhall, Matt Vespa — Conservative media seems to be taking a different approach to the story. Trump’s decision to ban the outlets isn’t “first time a president has barred an outlet from an event,” Vespa advanced a popular conservative talking point by noting, “In fact, the Biden White House revoked the press passes of some 440 reporters back in the day, but I didn’t hear any whining then.” (Fact-checkers note that the Biden administration merely tightened requirements for an all-access “hard pass” and did not strip access altogether. Many of the 440 reporters impacted had used their hard passes infrequently and simply chose not to reapply.)  For Vespa, the only difference is that Trump “has the stones to say screw the media, screw whoever the hell else, and do it.” He added that until the legal battle kicks off in earnest, “the White House gets to give these outlets the belt, and they get to posture as victims. It works for everyone, to be honest.” Vespa also elevated a tweet from Fox News’ Joe Concha in which the latter insisted, “Team Obama rejected more FOIA requests than anyone in history, spied on James Rosen, secretly seized AP phone records and booted several news outlets off of his plane. And not a peep from the people screaming about Trump doing the same now.”

TAKEAWAY:Given the unity shown by TV networks, Vespa’s take is a little surprising — perhaps this recent ban by Trump will move us all beyond blaming past presidents for the current’s failures and shortcomings. Maybe not! But it seems apparent that legacy media is willing to shed party lines in the face of true threats, and the president’s ban is certainly that. But the coming days and weeks will likely prove to be a crucial test of how far that network unity will go — because Trump’s next move, whatever it is, will surely try to test it.

TOP SCOOPS & ANALYSIS

SCOOP Status, Natalie Korach — Trump’s media ban came Friday afternoon, and that night “some members of CNN’s White House team attended a colleague’s birthday” — and the ban was, of course, “a hot topic of conversation,” Status learned. That’s because CNN could see changes as soon as today. “Staffers wondered when they would receive guidance on whether they would still be traveling alongside Trump to New York City on Monday. The network is scheduled to serve as the designated TV pooler, responsible for providing footage of the president during the United Nations General Assembly that would then be shared with the other outlets for their respective coverage of the event,” Korach also wrote.

SCOOP POLITICO Playbook, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns, and Will Steakin — David Milstein, a senior adviser to Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, “solicited cash gifts from Israeli citizens to celebrate his upcoming wedding,” Playbook reported today. He apparently “sent a Paperless Post wedding invitation on Sept. 16 soliciting “monetary wedding gift[s]” in either “U.S. dollars or Israeli shekels” along with a QR code.” Playbook “asked Milstein whether he had State Department and White House approval for the solicitation,” which apparently prompted him to send a new note to guests. Unfortunately, our email/message intended only to respond to requests from family and close family friends who had asked us if we had a gift registry was unintentionally sent to the broader guest list,” that note read. “Please know we cannot accept gifts of any kind.”

ANALYSIS The Free Press, Yardena Schwartz — Who is winning, or has won, the war between Israel and Hamas? That’s the question Schwartz is asking as the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks looms and as Israel prepares for elections. “At the core of much of that discourse is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Schwartz pointed out, and he’s “faced criticism for repeatedly blocking the creation of a national commission to investigate the failures on October 7.” But it seems the country is “desperate for information.” The questions much of the populace is wondering include: “How did Hamas—long considered Israel’s least formidable foe—succeed in carrying out the most horrific attack in the country’s history? And why, three years into a war Israelis were told would finish off Hamas once and for all, is the terrorist group still standing?”

ANALYSIS TheWrap, Roger Cheng and Tess Patton — Cheng and Patton spoke to crisis communications experts about the mess Ed Sheeran has created for himself, and were told the musician is “in big trouble.” As Drew Kerr of Four Corners Group put it, “Sheeran’s statement was threading-the-needle ludicrous.” It’s also clear that his team “did not have the comms strategy” for something like this, Michele Clark told the pair, and “They likely had one for show cancellation, fan injury on site, and all the other ‘template’ scenarios, but no one was thinking deeply about geopolitical issues. And for a global artist, that’s shocking.”

ANALYSIS The Washington Sun, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Jasmine Wright, Manuela Silva, and Jenna Monnin — In addition to attempting to boot members of the press from the White House, Trump also apparently arranged a deal to provide security to Greenland Friday, and “posted an image of himself peering over a globe that includes Greenland and the Arctic Circle but with his gaze seemingly centered on Europe.” It doesn’t seem Greenland really faced any geopolitical threats until Trump decided to become one, and now this is but one of many “Earth-defining crises” the rest of us are waiting to find out what kind of plan he has when it comes to figuring it all out. Trump apparently plans to speak about “peace deals that he has driven to conclusion or is in the process of driving to conclusion” and things he believes were “frankly neglected by past administrations.”

ANALYSIS Punchbowl News AM — “Diesel prices are at record highs, and it’s squeezing farmers and consumers alike,” Punchbowl reported. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has a solution: “block diesel exports as a way to hold prices down.” He isn’t the first Republican to come up with that idea, but “Iowa has a marquee Senate race this year, which makes Grassley’s comments land differently. The oil industry is opposed, naturally.” Grassley Democratic opposition Josh Turek also “quickly noted that he’d already called for a diesel export ban.”

BUSINESS OF MEDIA 

CNN’s Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter — As if there wasn’t enough going on today, we lead our business section with breaking news on an apparent resolution to the massive lawsuit which was holding up Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Despite a few of the Democratic states that sued to block the Paramount-WBD deal objecting to the pending settlement, Stelter wrote that “overnight talks apparently cleared the way for a settlement,” and now multiple outlets, including Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, “report that an announcement is imminent.” This news will surely dominate the stack tomorrow.  QUOTE  “‘You couldn’t script it better,’ an insider texted me just now, referencing Yom Kippur: ‘The deal goes through on day of atonement when CNN is banned from the White House.’”

ADWEEK Daily, Rebecca Stewart — Converse has a reputation for being the alt sneaker of choice, but this time, the Nike-owned brand stepped over the line. The company pulled two ad images promoting its Chuck 70 X sneaker after critics on social media alleged the imagery was reminiscent of Ku Klux Klan and lynching visuals. (This, per Stewart, is part of the broader “summer of the big brand apology.”) The photos featured K-pop star Karina (of Aespa fame, if you’re not a stan and need some guidance) standing in a spotlight shaped like Converse’s star logo, which some users argued formed an outline reminiscent of a Klansman’s hood alongside dangling shoes. QUOTE  “After issuing an apology on Friday, a memo circulated to employees from CEO Aaron Cain also promised ‘a hard look at our internal review process and the critical lens we apply to our work.’”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block, Brendon Kleen ESPN issued a statement strongly refuting former host Dan Le Batard‘s claim that the network has stepped back from diversity commitments in recent talent and executive hires. A network spokesperson defended ESPN’s commentator roster as “the deepest and most diverse… in the industry” following Le Batard’s rants targeting recent high-profile additions like Pat McAfee, Jason Kelce, and Peter Schrager. (Notably, ESPN sent that straight to AA after the site aggregated Le Batard’s quotes last week, so the network is obviously taking an offensive position by going straight to sources sharing the accusation.) QUOTE ”Of course, Le Batard’s view of the network may be through a selective lens. Even he acknowledged that Stephen A. Smith was the recipient of a record-breaking new deal just last year. And numerous other Black, Asian and Latino talent remain in prominent roles across ESPN.”

The Ankler’s The Wakeup, Sean McNulty — Director Zach Cregger‘s reboot of Capcom’s Resident Evil video game franchise generated a $60 million domestic box office opening for Sony Pictures and Constantin Film, marking the highest opening in the franchise’s history. The film’s strong performance surpassed initial industry tracking, driven heavily by younger theatergoers and gaming audiences. Much has been said about the value of fresh ideas, but never count out the appeal of old IP, especially when it bridges the gap between non-movie and cinematic content. QUOTE  “The only real curious note is that int’l was smaller than the U.S. ($48M vs. $60M) in a franchise where international has driven the pics by a large margin . . . but we’ll see how it shakes out.”

Barrett Media’s Morning Edition, Dr. Ed Cohen Small and mid-sized market radio broadcasters face unique financial issues that stem from expensive measurement services. Pegged to the news that Nielsen Audio has canceled the Bowling Green, Kentucky market, Cohen considers whether the future might include the establishment of a dedicated, low-cost ratings service to keep small-market radio stations viable. QUOTE  “Those of us who live and work here could see it coming. The loss of subscribers and the lack of interest in Nielsen’s product on the part of new ownerships helped doom Bowling Green.”

Morning Brew, Molly Liebergall — With the global gaming market expanding to over 3.5 billion players, publishers including Sony and Take-Two Interactive are phasing out physical disc releases in favor of digital-only downloads and cloud-streaming subscriptions. This has been going on a long time, but it’s notable to see it recognized, data-wise, in print—especially before the release of GTA6, for which Take-Two is the parent publisher. The transition has triggered consumer class-action lawsuits over digital licensing rights as well as rising usage caps on streaming services. QUOTE  “The days of holding a game in your hands are probably numbered… This practice angers gamers and consumer advocates because you can’t actually own a digital game—you’re buying a (revocable) license to play it.”

Punchbowl News AM, Ally Mutnick and Andrew Desiderio — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) launched an $8 million coordinated ad buy across 26 congressional districts, taking advantage of a Supreme Court ruling that allows political campaign arms to run joint advertising buys directly with individual candidate campaigns. QUOTE  “The DCCC notes that this is the first week that it is investing in more offensive than defensive districts.”

Page Six Hollywood, Tim Baysinger — Fall festival momentum is building following the Toronto International Film Festival, where Netflix’s La Bola Negra captured the People’s Choice Award and Amazon MGM’s I Play Rocky finished as runner-up. The festival outcomes mark an early shift in studios’ FYC awards campaign strategies for independent titles. QUOTE  “Since 1978, an astounding 22 winners of TIFF’s People’s Choice have been nominated for Best Picture Oscars.”

OTHER COOL STUFF

Morning Brew — Fat Bear Week is officially back for its 12th year at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, inviting fans to vote on a bracket as brown bears bulk up on salmon for winter hibernation.

Status — The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art celebrated its opening in Los Angeles with a celeb-forward gala featuring guest appearances by Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, and Mark Hamill. Perhaps our invitations just got lost in the mail.

WHAT GOT MISSED?

The Washington Sun, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Jasmine Wright, Manuela Silva, and Jenna Monnin — The American economy isn’t the only one taking a dive in light of Trump’s tariffs; apparently, plenty of European countries are feeling the burn, too. “German companies are also falling behind their Chinese competitors, and the stagnant economy is spurring German voters to turn toward far-right parties,” The Washington Sun noted today, and “The German government is trying to adapt, but is limited in what it can do because of the nation’s dependence on American markets.”

NEWSLETTER OF THE DAY

CNN’s Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter — Trump’s White House ban, the subsequent lawsuit, and everyone’s next steps have all added up to a seismic media story, and Stelter — who has seemingly been working around-the-clock on it — churned out an excellent, timely update on it in today’s Reliable Sources. Stelter elevated a lot of voices, from The Free Press — and by extension, Bari Weiss and CBS — whose editorial board wrote, “By barring reporters from the White House, Donald Trump is once again demonstrating his administration’s willingness to ride roughshod over the fourth estate,” to Face the Nation’s extensive coverage of the ban to CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang, who said in part that“an attack on one media organization is an attack on all media organizations.”

Stelter also kept his readers abreast of the latest in the Paramount/WBD lawsuit and Trump’s attempted takedown of the Kennedy Center in a jam-packed edition on a tight deadline.

This newsletter was produced by Lindsey Ellefson.

The post What’s Trump’s Next Move in High-Stakes Standoff With Media first appeared on Mediaite.

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