Bad News Plagues the Administration
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Why did the Trump administration ban CNN from the Air Force One press pool?
Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. September 26, 2026 Trump's war on the free press is continuing. Last night, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the White House would not allow reporters from CNN on Air Force One as part of the press pool to cover the president as he traveled to Tennessee for a college football game. CNN is a member of the pool made up of five major TV networks. The other two outlets Trump tried to ban from the White House, MSNOW and Politico, are part of a different pool. CNN was scheduled to provide the television footage for the trip. At 6.51 this morning, Trump's social media account posted, Why should perpetrators of fake news like CNN and MSDNC be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House?
Despite my big election win, almost 100% of Trump coverage is negative and has been for years. He followed up at 8.22 with, fake news should not be allowed in the White House. It has gone on far too long at a tremendous cost to our country. Later in the morning, he told reporters, I love an open free press. What I don't like is the fake press.
What led the Broadview Six prosecutor to resign and what does it reveal about political prosecutions?
What we don't want is, we don't want fake news. As bad news continues to plague the administration, Trump has reasons for wanting to control the press. On Thursday, in a scathing letter, a key prosecutor in the case of the six people charged with felonies after a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, Broadview detention facility in Illinois, the Broadview Six, resigned under protest. Sherry Mecklenburg was a career prosecutor in the Department of Justice who was near retirement and appeared to have doubts about the felony charges against the six protesters. In the protest, people surrounded an ICE vehicle, but only the six, all of whom were active in Democratic politics, were charged.
When the cases fell apart because of prosecutorial misconduct, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boudros, a strong Trump supporter, laid all of the blame for the misconduct on Mecklenburg, claiming he had been out of the loop in how the case was progressing. But in her resignation letter, Mecklenburg said she was retiring so she could defend herself. She wrote that she had kept Boutros fully informed of the case and that he was using her as a scapegoat for his own misconduct. She said he had personally directed the felony prosecution after she objected that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges. She said he threatened to fire her if she tried to push back on the false allegations.
Mecklenburg's resignation and allegations illuminate the Trump administration's efforts to prosecute political opponents. Boudreaux's tenure as U.S.
How were $1.4 million in Kennedy Center funds allegedly diverted to repainting Trump's columns?
attorney has been so problematic there had been an exodus of senior officials from the office, and more than 100 former prosecutors signed a letter warning of failure of leadership in the office and the poisoning of the office with once-forbidden political considerations. Perhaps a more concern to Trump is the report yesterday from Julia Jacobs of the New York Times that whistleblowers who used to work at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say that six months ago, Trump loyalists running the center canceled plans to fix the leaking roof they now claim is so dangerous the center must be closed and repaired. Those repairs, they say, will require the addition of Trump's name to the building.
The whistleblowers claim that the center's board put the $1.4 million that had been allocated to fix the roof toward Trump's repainting of the building's columns, which cost $4.4 million. As his job approval numbers continue to decline, and as individuals and the courts try to stop his unlawful actions, Trump is pushing ever harder to cement his power. The courts have given him leeway in national security, and he is using that leeway. A recent New York Times-Siena poll showed that 69% of the American people disapprove of Trump's handling of the war in Iran, 59% of them strongly.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why did the Trump administration ban CNN from the Air Force One press pool?
0:07–1:40
2
What led the Broadview Six prosecutor to resign and what does it reveal about political prosecutions?
1:40–3:31
3
How were $1.4 million in Kennedy Center funds allegedly diverted to repainting Trump's columns?
3:31–5:55
4
Why is Trump planning to resume bombing Iran despite public opposition?
5:55–8:27
5
What are the constitutional issues behind the administration’s refusal to spend $810 million appropriated by Congress?
8:27–10:27
6
Is hosting a Major League Baseball game in a national park a new power move by Trump?
10:27–12:14