UPDATE (February 24, 2025, 3:22 p.m. ET): Shortly after this post was published, acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, who has nothing to do with the case, announced his opposition to the AP’s case, accusing the news organization for “refusing to put America first.”
A couple of weeks ago, the White House prevented Associated Press journalists from attending official events for an exceedingly misguided reason: AP reports referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico. Donald Trump and his team want news organizations to instead use the Republican-endorsed name — the “Gulf of America” — so the AP was punished accordingly.
What was not immediately obvious at the time was whether the incident was a one-day retaliatory tantrum or the start of something larger. It quickly became apparent that the White House had settled on the latter.
The news organization is taking the matter to a new level. The New York Times reported:
The Associated Press sued top White House officials on Friday, accusing them of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by denying A.P. reporters access to press events in retaliation for references to the Gulf of Mexico in its articles. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It named as defendants Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff; Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.
The litigation alleges that the White House is demanding that the free press use politically approved phrases, and the case was filed “to vindicate its [the AP’s] rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution and to prevent the executive branch from coercing journalists to report the news using only government-approved language.”
According to a court filing from the White House, it was Trump who personally approved the access ban for AP journalists.
Time will tell what becomes of the litigation, though the president and his team were likely pleased to learn that the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee.
We’ll learn soon enough how the case is proceeding, but White House officials do not appear eager to back down. Leavitt, for example, has told reporters that, as far as Team Trump is concerned, media professionals who continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico are necessarily “lying” to the public.
Budowich, meanwhile, published a related pitch via social media, accusing The Associated Press of “ignoring the lawful geographic name change,” which according Budowich, “exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation.” In other words, as far as the White House is concerned, Trump signed an executive order unilaterally changing the name of the body of water, so everyone has responsibility to just go along with the president’s one-man rebranding campaign. News organizations that fail to comply should expect to be punished and smeared. I continue to believe there are larger principles at stake than what people will call the gulf. Indeed, this controversy, at its root, is about a White House that’s waging an aggressive campaign against the free press, and in this instance, is also trying to bully one of the nation’s leading news organizations into submission as part of an Orwellian campaign. Welcome to the exciting new era for the First Amendment, in which people and businesses are free to use the words and phrases that Republicans like — or face the consequences. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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