Trump administration excludes CNN from TV pool for Tennessee trip

The power struggle between US President Donald Trump and several media companies continues. The news channel CNN is not allowed to film US President Donald Trump's trip to the state of Tennessee as a representative of the so-called TV pool. The US government has decided this.

Five major US television networks traditionally share the task of always accompanying the president on camera. The pool representatives usually travel with the president and usually have direct access to his appearances. On Friday last week, however, Trump banned the channels CNN, MS NOW and the news portal Politico from access to the White House because, in his opinion, their reporting was not balanced. A judge then ordered that media representatives be allowed to report from the White House again. The journalists from the media houses were then allowed back into the government headquarters.

For Trump's upcoming trip to Tennessee, it would have been CNN's turn to record the video material and make it available to others. However, the broadcaster now reported that CNN was not given permission to do so by the White House without giving any reasons.

It is unclear whether the government violated the judge's ruling. Taken literally, the judge only ordered that the three media outlets' access passes to the White House be restored, legal expert Eli Honig told CNN. But one could argue that disinviting CNN from the trip as a reporter for the TV pool violated "the spirit" of the judge's order, he explained.