President Donald Trump criticized Fox News while praising the one major outlet he believes still covers him fairly. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said Breitbart News gives him fair coverage before granting Fox only partial credit and immediately attacking the network’s polling. The remarks came as the president expanded his long-running fight with media organizations he accuses of publishing false or deliberately hostile reports.
Trump made the comments on Friday, September 18th, after announcing that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would be barred from the White House over what he described as their constant “fake news” coverage. The announcement prompted a question from Washington Examiner reporter Naomi Lim about the administration’s authority to exclude the outlets. Trump responded by pointing to the overwhelmingly negative press coverage he believes he has received despite his 2024 election victory.
Lim asked why the new restrictions would survive a legal challenge when the first Trump administration’s 2018 attempt to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials was blocked in court. Trump defended the decision and then shifted to his broader complaints about the national media. He cited his victory in all seven swing states, his popular-vote win, and the number of counties he carried across the country.
“I won the presidency. I won all seven swing states. I won the popular vote. I won 87% of the counties,” Trump said, according to Breitbart News. “That’s why the maps are all red when you look, except for two little blue lines on each side on each coast.” He then turned to the coverage he receives from the press. “I won a landslide, and I get no — I get I don’t get fair press,” Trump continued. “I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox.” Trump then criticized Fox’s polling, adding, “Fox is the worst. I think Fox has, frankly, the worst polls in the whole business.”
Trump argued that courts should not force the White House to accommodate news organizations that repeatedly publish material he considers false. “I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” he said. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away, if they’re going to write false stories all the time.”
Watch Trump single out Breitbart and criticize Fox here:
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The president specifically named CNN, MS NOW, and Politico while defending the ban. “CNN is fake news. MS NOW is fake news. They’re fake news. They know it. They’re put there for a reason,” Trump said. He also accused Politico of receiving government support during former President Joe Biden’s administration, saying, “Politico was bailed out by our government from going out of business. I don’t know if it was $8 million or something.”
Trump announced the restrictions earlier Friday in a post on Truth Social. He said the three outlets would be barred “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” before adding, “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.” The move followed the administration’s February 2025 decision to bar Associated Press journalists from the Oval Office and Air Force One, which resulted in an ongoing court fight over press access.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.