# White House bars CNN from Trump's Air Force One trip

> The administration replaces CNN with a conservative network on the president's flight to Tennessee, escalating a media access dispute.
- Title: White House bars CNN from Trump's Air Force One trip · NPR
- Summary: The administration replaces CNN with a conservative network on the president's flight to Tennessee, escalating a media access dispute. The White House…
- Keywords: cnn, donald trump, white house, media access, air force one, real america's voice news, first amendment, press pool, news, White, House, bars
- Source: NPR — https://npr.org/2026/09/26/g-s1-145142/cnn-left-off-air-force-one
- Published: 2026-09-26T00:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: cnn, donald trump, white house, media access, air force one, real america's voice news, first amendment, press pool, news
## CNN barred from Trump's Saturday flight
The White House signaled Friday night that CNN would be left off Air Force One for President Donald Trump's Saturday trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he will attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas.
## Conservative network replaces CNN
CNN was replaced by Real America's Voice News, a conservative network, for the president's trip, according to White House guidance. Real America's Voice News is not part of the standard U.S. network video pool.
## Judge had just restored CNN's access
The move came days after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down Trump's ban on CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, from White House grounds in an overnight ruling early Thursday. The judge's decision addressed hard passes but did not directly address pool duties or Air Force One.
## Outlets' lawyers claim ruling covers pool
Theodore Boutrous Jr., the news outlets' attorney, said on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper that the plaintiffs believe the recent court ruling also covers the issue of pool access. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for additional details.
## Pool briefly returned to operation
For a while Friday, the U.S. network video pool was back in operation for the first time since Trump banned the three outlets. At noon, CNN aired live video of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi's wife.
## Pattern of Trump targeting media outlets
Throughout his second term, Trump has increasingly targeted media outlets whose coverage irritates him. Early last year he banished AP reporters from White House events because the organization wasn't abiding by his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
## Pool's role in presidential accountability
The press pool was created decades ago by the White House Correspondents' Association to ensure a rotating roster always travels with the president. The pool distributes in-person reports and imagery to the broader press corps and is designed to hold the nation's chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public.
## Key takeaway

The White House excluded CNN from Air Force One for Trump's Saturday trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, replacing it with conservative Real America's Voice News, days after a judge temporarily restored the network's White House access.