CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration after they were barred from covering the White House, saying the selective ban was “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, Trump will meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani when Trump travels to the city for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly. The meeting is scheduled for Monday and at Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. The two will discuss issues affecting the city and New Yorkers. The White House confirmed the meeting will take place but did not offer more details.
Here's the latest:
Democratic PAC reserves almost $2.5 million to target Lawler, Kean in NYC cable market
A Democratic super PAC is setting aside nearly $2.5 million for cable ads in the New York City market in a pair battleground House districts.
House Majority PAC said Monday the adds will be focused on New York’s 17th and New Jersey’s 7th districts.
In New York, moderate Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is up against Democrat Cait Conley. In New Jersey, incumbent Republican Tom Kean Jr., was absent with an unexplained illness for months this year. He’s since said he was hospitalized for depression and is running against Democrat Rebecca Bennett.
Rubio meets with Arctic leaders ahead of Greenland-Denmark-US deal signing
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with his counterparts from the Arctic 7 bloc of nations, including Canada, Denmark and a representative from Greenland, all of which have had strained relationships with the Trump administration.
Monday’s meeting on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly comes just a day before President Donald Trump is due to sign an agreement at the U.N. with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to give the U.S. greater latitude in Greenland’s security. Trump’s relations with Canada have remained sour.
Despite the tensions, before posing for photos in front of their flags, the officials could be heard joking and laughing loudly in a side room.
Asked what the topic of conversation had been, Rubio replied: “That’s for us to know and you to find out,” That comment was met with more laughter from the group.
The Arctic 7 actually consists of 9 entities -- Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States. However, Greenland and the Faroe Islands are semi-autonomous territories of Denmark.
Danish PM is confident security agreement with US and Greenland will be signed
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was looking forward to meeting U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday and expressed confidence that an agreement between Greenland, Denmark and the United States would be signed, according to Danish broadcaster TV2 Denmark.
“I’m looking forward to the meeting tomorrow. I think we have reached a good agreement,” Frederiksen told TV2 in New York. She said the deal was good for all parties and had taken a long time to negotiate. While stopping short of guaranteeing a signing, Frederiksen said she firmly believed it would take place Tuesday.
Greenland, Denmark and the United States will sign a joint agreement aimed at strengthening security in the Arctic and North Atlantic region, the Danish prime minister’s office said. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Frederiksen and Trump are due to sign the agreement at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Nielsen said in a Facebook post that the signing would be “an important moment after a difficult period,” during which many Greenlanders had followed developments with concern. He said he looked forward to taking the next step with Greenland’s interests and security, and respect for the country, as the “clear starting point.” The signing ceremony is expected to take place at 10:30 a.m. local time on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Trump cuts a ribbon to show off a new place for the presidential helicopter to land
The president and what appeared to be construction workers in high-visibility vests and hard hats gathered on the South Lawn of the White House to mark the first day a new slab of stone was to be used for the presidential helicopter to land.
Trump appeared to be trying to make some comments to mark the occasion, but his words were inaudible over the roar of the helicopter’s engine which was already on behind him, waiting for him to board.
The president cut a red white and blue ribbon and admired a pair of long gold scissors he did to used the job. He then walked and clapped as he made his way slowly toward the aircraft, shaking a few hands along the way, and then boarding Marine One.
South Dakota’s Republican secretary of state breaks with party in endorsing a successor
Secretary of State Monae Johnson explained her decision to back Democratic candidate Terrence Davis by saying “the integrity, stability, and professionalism of this office is at stake.”
Johnson has served in the position that oversees elections for four years, after having worked in the office as a staff member, but lost the Republican nomination to state lawmaker Heather Baxter.
On her campaign website, Baxter said she stands with President Trump and supports his concerns about “inaccurate voter rolls, mail in ballots, and voting machine issues.”
Johnson announced her decision to support the Democrat in a column published over the weekend.
“I am a Republican. Terrence (Davis) is a Democrat,” she wrote. “I understand that this decision will disappoint some people in my party and anger others.”
Senate appropriators reject White House proposal on NIH grants
Sens. Susan Collins and Patty Murray are rejecting efforts by the Trump administration to give the White House control of National Institutes of Health grant funding.
Collins, a Republican, is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Murray is the panel’s ranking Democratic member.
Any attempt to “politicize grantmaking” at NIH, whether through an executive order or guidance is “contrary to congressional intent,” Collins said in a press release.
A report in Politico said Trump has directed his budget director, Russ Vought, to create a board that would decide which grants NIH would fund.
Murray said that under the administration’s effort, a single political appointee could kill a cancer study for no scientific reason.
“Whether lifesaving medical research gets funded or not should be determined by experts at the NIH—not a panel of lackeys chosen by Donald Trump and Russ Vought,” Murray said.
Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson draws jabs from opponent for post that linked high costs to Iran war
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is in a competitive race for Iowa’s open Senate seat, linked high costs to the Iran war in a post Monday. Iowans “shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” she said in the post on X, Hinson called for actions to lower costs “ASAP” and a “successful and immediate end” to the war.
The post promptly received pushback from Hinson’s opponent in the race for retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat. Democrat Josh Turek said on X that “it’s easy to send a tweet” and criticized Hinson for her votes against a war powers resolution to halt President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action without lawmakers’ approval.
Two of Hinson’s colleagues in the Iowa delegation, Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, voted for the resolution last week after previously voting against it. In statements, both pointed to high costs and said they could no longer support an open-ended war. Hinson did not join them.
Vance says CNN, MS NOW and Politico lost their “special access” to the White House but are not banned
Speaking with reporters accompanying him on a campaign trip to North Carolina, Vance said the three news outlets can still report on the White House and talk to people in the administration or outside of government.
He argued that Trump’s decision was about “basic fairness” and is not a violation of the constitutional right to free speech and freedom of the press.
Trump attributed the ban to reporting he described as “fake news.” Vance said the reporting is “effectively far left propaganda.”
“It’s about basic fairness,” Vance said. “They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore.”
The White House has deactivated access badges for journalists for the three organizations, meaning they cannot get onto the grounds to file reports. Reporters for MS NOW and CNN have been filming their live shots from street corners near the White House.
Rubio kicks off shortened UNGA week with a flurry of meetings
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has begun a truncated visit to New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly session, with a flurry of meetings before President Donald Trump arrives.
Rubio began Monday by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and then headed immediately into talks with Bolivia’s president and then a three-way meeting with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers. Later he is to see the Italian foreign minister, meet with his counterparts from Arctic nations and then hold talks with Kenya’s president and Iraq’s prime minister.
Rubio will depart New York on Wednesday, much earlier than either he or his predecessors have done in the past, in order to return to Washington for Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Illinois governor says he's lost 80 pounds with GLP-1 medication
Gov. JB Pritzker disclosed his regimen in a series of interviews this weekend. The Democrat has long struggled with his weight and turned to the new medications after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Pritzker’s girth has led him to be regularly mocked by President Trump. He now says he’s lost 80 pounds (36 kilograms) on the medication.
A possible 2028 presidential candidate, Pritzker said his health has always been on his mind since his father died of a heart attack at age 39. He’s stepped up his exercise routine after the diabetes diagnosis as well.
Trump has been more aggressive toward the media in his second term
The president and his Republican administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets. Trump has also lashed out at individual reporters in person or over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms — insulting them in briefings or in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Melania Trump and China’s first lady to visit the Smithsonian
Melania Trump’s office says she and Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, will visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art on Thursday.
The visit will take place while President Trump and Xi meet at the White House.
The museum holds one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art, according to its website.
Xi will be in Washington later this week on a state visit to the United States.
A grand arrival ceremony for him at the White House on Thursday will end with a military flyover featuring a B-2 Spirit and four F-22 Raptors, according to a detailed rundown from the first lady’s office of White House plans for Xi’s visit.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue over denied White House access, citing the First Amendment
CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration after they were barred from covering the White House, saying the selective ban was “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
The administration’s announcement of the bans Friday and the White House’s subsequent actions over the weekend represented a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable. They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.
The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
In a social media post, Trump says he’s attacking ‘FAKE NEWS’
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the news outlets’ lawsuit, which was expected to be filed later in the morning. But on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote Monday morning that he cherished what he called a free press.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” the president said in his post. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
On Monday morning, the banned news outlets were reporting from outside the White House
They were at an intersection just outside the White House complex.
Also Monday, CNN was removed from its pool duties, which are shared by the major networks. It had been scheduled to cover the president’s trip to New York. In an email, the TV pool, which consists of the five major networks, wrote that there would be no replacement coverage following the White House actions.
Trump shattered Canada’s old US relationship. Carney is building a new one in Europe
For nearly four decades, Canada built its economy around closer integration with the United States. President Trump has turned that dependence into leverage, imposing tariffs, threatening Canada’s sovereignty and openly seeking to pull Canadian industrial production south.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has moved on. Rather than return to trade talks or wait for the next U.S. president to restore the old relationship, he’s urgently building a future in which Canada is less dependent on America.
Last week, Carney embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union’s first associate member, not as a step toward full membership, but as a way to reduce Canada’s dependence on any single country without ceding control over its own decisions.
White House Correspondents’ Association president calls for news outlets’ access to be restored
“The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,” Jacqui Heinrich said. “The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably.”
US futures climb as oil prices drop and investors await expected Trump-Xi meeting
The meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week in Washington could cover trade, artificial intelligence and geopolitics.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.7% on Monday, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%. Nasdaq futures climbed 1.1%.
Oil prices fell more than 3% Monday as vessel traffic and energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz picked up, although the Strait has remained largely closed and uncertainty persisted over U.S.-Iran tensions. Saudi Arabia on Saturday confirmed that Yemen’s Houthi rebels tried to attack its capital with a ballistic missile, the first targeting of Riyadh since the escalation in fighting with the Tehran-backed rebels that’s opened a new front in the Iran war.
Trump decries Democrats as ‘communists,’ even as he looks to impress China’s communist leader
Communism, President Donald Trump says, is the greatest threat the U.S. has ever faced.
This summer, citing similarly grave concerns, he took the rare step of delivering a primetime address to the nation, accusing China of “sinister election meddling” in 2020 and reviving his yearslong push to dispute his loss in that year’s election.
Even as Trump seeks to decry Democrats as communists ahead of November’s midterm elections, he's rolling out the red carpet this week for Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of the world’s most powerful communist country.
The state visit comes as the president himself has increasingly directed his administration to take large stakes in private companies to try to stimulate the economy — something even some Republicans decry as corporate socialism.
The contradictions between Trump’s words and actions risk muddying Republican attack lines on Democrats.
Trump and Mamdani plan to meet in New York during the president’s upcoming UN visit
Trump will meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani when Trump travels to the city for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday and at Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence, according to Anna Bahr, Mamdani’s communications director.
Bahr said the two will discuss issues affecting the city and New Yorkers. The White House confirmed the meeting will take place but did not offer more details.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who upset former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary before winning the general election in November, has been a favorite and frequent political foil for Republicans.
But Trump has often been warm to Mamdani and seemed charmed by the young mayor. Their first meeting after Mamdani’s election was quite cordial, with Trump saying at the White House that the then-mayor-elect would “surprise some conservative people.” The Republican president had called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” during the 2025 campaign.
CNN, MS NOW, Politico say they’ve notified Trump they’re suing over denied White House access
CNN, MS NOW and Politico said Monday they’ve notified President Donald Trump’s administration that they’re filing a lawsuit over being denied White House access.
Reporters from the three major news organizations were blocked from the White House on Saturday, a day after Trump said he was barring them because of reporting he found to be “fake news.”
The actions were a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable and were the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump had said Friday he would ban all three outlets because of coverage he disliked.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In