Oh Boy! Now What?

It happened. We all expected it. And it happen.

Will the Trump administration be found in contempt-of-court?

Trump Cuts Permanent Press Pool Spot for All Wire Services After Court Orders AP Access Restored

The White House will instead expand its print access for two reporters and allow crew access for networks like ABC, CNN and Fox

The Wrap

By Benjamin Lindsay and Tess Patton

April 15, 2025

The Trump White House apparently found a workaround Tuesday to its court order to restore Oval Office access to the Associated Press: wire news services will no longer be guaranteed a spot in the press pool, according to multiple media reports.

The pool’s new makeup, according to The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum, will expand to allow access for two print journalists (or “print poolers”); one network crew from the likes of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC; one secondary network or streamer; one radio station; one new media outlet, and four photographers.

“The makeup of the pool is far more reflective of the media habits of the American people in 2025,” a senior White House official told The New York Post, who first broke the news Tuesday. “The White House press policy continues to be grounded in fairness for all outlets that wish to cover the White House.”

This is what step on the road to dictatorship? Controlling the press is probably up near the top of the list. The British newspaper Reuters reported,

Wire services including Reuters and Bloomberg News will no longer hold a permanent slot in the small pool of reporters who cover President Donald Trump, the White House said on Tuesday, as it moves to exert greater control over who gets to ask him questions and report on his statements in real time.

The decision comes after the Trump administration last week lost a court challenge brought by another wire service, the Associated Press, over its earlier exclusion from the press pool.

Somehow, I don't think that the courts will like this cat and mouse game that Trump is playing with the Constitution.

Outcry as White House starts dictating which journalists can access Trump

This article is more than 1 month old

Fox News correspondent among those to decry move that journalists say will ‘tear at independence of a free press’

The Guardian

By Joseph Gedeon

February 25, 2025

The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.

The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.

[...]

“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.

“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”

The announcement upended more than 70 years of protocol of journalists – not government officials – determining which rotating reporters travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.

The ball's in the court's court and this is another step on the road to fascism.