THIS IS INSANE: Trump had a full blown meltdown on Truth Social, furious that CNN and MS NOW didn’t cover Xi Jinping’s arrival, apparently forgetting he’s the one who banned them from the White House in the first place.
Trump raged in a lengthy post, accusing the networks of deliberately blowing off what he called one of the “Biggest and Most Beautiful Events” in years.
“CNN and MSDNC, to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years,” Trump wrote. “They refused to be there.”
Read that again. Trump banned these networks from the White House. Then he got angry they weren’t there.
Here’s what actually happened. Both CNN and MS NOW say they repeatedly tried to get into the White House Thursday morning during the Xi event, but weren’t let in until around noon. The White House’s own court filing claimed access was restored around 9:55 a.m., but even by that timeline, there wasn’t nearly enough time for full network crews to get set up before the event started at 10:00.
So the outlets didn’t refuse to show up. They were physically blocked from showing up, exactly as they’ve been saying in federal court all week.
This all comes the same day a judge overturned Trump’s media ban entirely, ruling there was no factual support for the administration’s national security justification, and ordering their access restored.
So Trump banned the networks, they got blocked at the gate despite a court order, and then he publicly blamed them for not covering an event he made it nearly impossible for them to attend.
