Trump Bans AP And Reuters But Invites Russian State Media To Zelenskyy Meeting

The Trump White House barred the AP and Reuters from attending, but invited Russian state media to the Oval Office to cover his meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

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A Revealing Moment That Shows Trump’s Contempt For American Democracy

Donald Trump has been attempting to reshape how the media covers his presidency since before he took office. When Trump got Disney to settle his frivolous lawsuit against ABC News, it emboldened him.

Since taking office, Trump has banned the Associated Press from attending White House events and access to the president because they refuse to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Reuters has also earned Trump’s wrath for its reporting.

The situation escalated this week when the White House announced that they would be selecting members of the White House Press Pool, not the White House Correspondents Association. The White House promptly removed HuffPost from the press pool.

Credible media organizations have been replaced by right-wing social media influencers like LibsOfTikTok in the White House.

Trump’s freeze out of the free press hit a new level on Friday when journalists started posting on X that the AP and Reuters were not allowed to cover the president’s Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy, but TASS, the Russian state media outlet, was present at the White House.

Andrew Feinberg posted on X, “Among the hand-picked folks the White House is letting into the Oval Office with @realDonaldTrump and @ZelenskyyUa today is a correspondent from TASS, the Russian state news agency.”

Nandita Bose of Reuters confirmed, “Can confirm White House is letting in a reporter from Russian state news agency TASS to cover the bilat between Trump and Zelenskiy. Reuters and AP were excluded.”

Russian state media was IN THE OVAL OFFICE.