CNN was barred from traveling on Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to Tennessee and replaced by conservative network Real America’s Voice News, marking a fresh escalation in the White House’s ongoing press access disputes just days after a federal judge temporarily struck down a newsroom ban.
The latest travel restriction emerged in White House scheduling guidance released on Friday night. President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a midday college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas in Knoxville. Rather than flying with the presidential party, CNN learned its journalists would be left off the aircraft entirely, with the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice News stepping into the assignment, according to White House guidance.
CNN left off Air Force One for Trump's upcoming
White House Restrictions and the Return to the Executive Complex
The exclusion follows an extraordinary showdown over media access that began when the White House banned CNN, Politico, and MS NOW journalists from the White House after accusing them of writing fiction or lies
about his administration. Legal action was being pursued by all three news organizations, which also claimed that Trump had infringed upon their constitutional protections regarding freedom of speech and the press. In support of the barred companies, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC—four television networks that share regular White House reporting duties alongside CNN—had temporarily halted their coverage of the president. Ahead of the United General Assembly in New York, the administration subsequently rolled out its proprietary streaming platform, Trump TV.
White House bars CNN from travelling with Trump on
The blockade faced a temporary legal setback when U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday. Reporters from the affected networks subsequently returned to the executive complex with TV cameras, laptops and microphones in hand after a judge handed the organizations a reprieve. Yet the administration quickly drew a hard line around travel logistics. While the court order addressed “hard passes” to the White House grounds, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s decision didn’t directly address pool duties, and the temporary order also said nothing directly about Air Force One.
Pool Rotation Dynamics and Legal Gray Areas
CNN left off Air Force One for Trump’s trip
Because of the slot allocated to CNN for the Tennessee journey, the broadcaster was designated to act as the weekend’s television press pool representative, tasked with gathering coverage of the president and distributing video and details to the other member networks in the pool. CNN was replaced by Real America’s Voice News, a conservative network, according to White House guidance and the Associated Press.
Despite the exclusion from Air Force One, other aspects of the rotating pool briefly limped back into operation. For a brief period during the day, the White House U.S. network video pool resumed functioning for the first time since the administration enacted its ban on the three news organizations. On Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Washington, President Donald Trump’s motorcade left the White House for the National Archives to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, an event documented by photographers such as Jacquelyn Martin/AP.
Legal counsel for the media organizations maintains that the recent judicial intervention should cover broader access issues. Legal representative for the news organizations Theodore Boutrous Jr. did not immediately answer an email and phone call seeking comment placed by The Associated Press on Friday evening. Earlier Friday, on The Lead with Jake Tapper,
Boutrous had said the plaintiffs believe the recent court ruling by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly also covers the issue of pool access. However, administration officials have signaled an uncompromising posture regarding executive aircraft and press credentials.