The White House broke its silence on the backlash since it blocked the Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg from President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East.
Trump left for Saudi Arabia on Monday with a host of press aboard Air Force One, including Fox News’s Sean Hannity. However, there was no wire service reporter on board. The trip is Trump’s second foreign trip since reentering the Oval Office for a second term.
“For the first time since the White House press corps started traveling with American presidents abroad, no wire service reporter is aboard Air Force One today,” White House Correspondents’ Association President Eugene Daniels said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “Leaving out the wires is a disservice to Americans who need news about their president, especially on foreign trips where anything could happen and the consequences can impact the entire world.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung mocked the outrage with a sarcastic reply. Cheung posted a screenshot of Daniels’s statement on X on Tuesday.
“Oh no! A strong worded email!” Cheung captioned the message.
Oh no! A strong worded email!
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) May 13, 2025
SEAN HANNITY SEES ‘DESIRE’ FROM SAUDI ARABIA TO WORK WITH TRUMP
The Trump administration has long battled with the media. Trump notably did not attend the most recent White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, just as he avoided the event in years past. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to leave the Associated Press out of her press conferences when the outlet refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America as Trump renamed it in an executive order.
Meanwhile, the White House might use more stenographers to transcribe Trump as he has proven to be talkative during his first days in office.