Fox News has joined the rest of the major television networks in refusing to provide pooled video coverage of President Donald Trump’s day-to-day events, according to a report by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. The move follows Trump’s decision to revoke White House press access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico over what he called “FAKE NEWS” reporting.
Bryan Boughton, head of Fox News’ Washington bureau and chairman of the White House TV pool, notified members that the pool would stop covering designated pool events involving the president, effective immediately.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton wrote in an email, according to Collins. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
Under the standing arrangement run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC rotate daily as the primary TV pool outlet, sharing video footage of the president’s events across all participating networks. Alongside the TV crews, the pool typically includes print reporters, a radio correspondent, a new media reporter, and photographers who travel with the president.
Monday was CNN’s scheduled turn in the rotation. But the White House press office’s guidance for the day showed no primary pool camera assigned to cover Trump’s 1:45 p.m. Eastern ribbon-cutting event on the South Lawn or his subsequent trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The White House will continue to livestream events through its own video crew on YouTube and social media, as it has throughout the administration, meaning the public will still see footage — just not footage produced or distributed through the independent press pool.
Trump’s New York schedule Monday included separate meetings with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of which were closed to press.
Trump addressed the access fight Monday morning in a post on Truth Social, denying that the White House was targeting journalism broadly.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” Trump wrote. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
The dispute marks an escalation in the administration’s ongoing conflict with outlets it accuses of biased coverage, and now draws in networks, including Fox News, that have not been targeted by the access revocations themselves.
