Trump Tells CNN at UN 'You Should Not Be Here' as Ban Fight Heads to Court

President Trump confronted CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the UN while CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue over his White House press ban ahead of a Wednesday hearing.

When Collins asked when the war with Iran would end, citing a poll finding two-thirds of Americans do not think the U.S. is winning, Trump said, "I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me," and told her, "You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me." Collins pointed out that the United Nations — not the White House — had credentialed CNN for the event, and later told viewers CNN never said it would stop covering the president.

The exchange came days after Trump announced last Friday he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the outlets — without citing specific stories — of reporting what he called false stories. The ban took effect Saturday morning, when Secret Service officers at the White House took press passes from journalists from the three outlets as they arrived to work. Trump has defended the move, claiming it was not an assault on the free press but designed to address "national security" threats.

On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a joint lawsuit against Trump in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleging the ban violates the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause, and asking a judge to restore their access. "We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes," the outlets said in a joint statement. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered the Department of Justice to respond to the injunction request by Tuesday and scheduled a teleconference hearing for Wednesday.

According to CTV News, the administration's late-Tuesday court filing urged the judge to reject the outlets' request, arguing that "access to the White House is a privilege — not a right" and that presidents have long decided which journalists receive privileged access. According to CNBC, MS NOW also obtained White House talking points sent to congressional Republicans, which state that the First Amendment "protects their right to publish; it does not entitle certain outlets and members of the press to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool." Trump, meanwhile, predicted he would lose before Kelly, calling him "not a particularly fair judge" — the same judge who ordered CNN's Jim Acosta's press pass restored in a similar 2018 case.

The fight escalated beyond the courtroom. The five-network consortium that rotates White House pool coverage — ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBC News and CNN — said four of its members would suspend pool coverage of Trump's trip to New York rather than replace CNN, which had been scheduled as the designated pool network. Other organizations joined in: The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The New York Times declined to publish photographs of presidential events on Monday, per CTV News, and a sign reading "I stand with AP, CNN, MS NOW, Politico" was spotted in the White House workspace.

Wednesday's hearing on the preliminary injunction is the immediate flashpoint, and Trump suggested he would comply if ordered, saying of a potential ruling against him, "Well, it probably will." CNN has said it "will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account," and it continued covering the president from New York under UN credentials. Analysts note the standoff's longer stakes: Syracuse University's Robert Thompson told the Associated Press that Trump's casual remarks about basic press freedoms are "a lot more serious" than the short-term coverage gap audiences will barely notice.