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White House Correspondents’ Association condemns White House’s determination to exclude paper arsenic ‘deeply troubling’.
Published On 22 Jul 2025
United States President Donald Trump’s medication has barred The Wall Street Journal from accompanying the president on an upcoming overseas travel amid a spat implicit the newspaper’s sum of his links to the notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein.
White House property caput Karoline Leavitt said connected Monday that the Journal would not beryllium among 13 media outlets travelling with Trump connected a sojourn to Scotland this play owed to its “fake and defamatory conduct”.
“Every quality enactment successful the full satellite wishes to screen President Trump, and the White House has taken important steps to see arsenic galore voices arsenic possible,” Leavitt said successful a statement.
The determination comes aft the Journal past week reported that Trump sent Epstein, who died successful jailhouse successful 2009 portion facing enactment trafficking charges, a “bawdy” missive successful 2003 to people the juncture of his 50th birthday.
Trump, who has vigorously denied the report, connected Friday filed a defamation suit against the paper and its owners seeking $20bn successful damages.
In a statement, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) called the Trump administration’s determination “deeply troubling”.
“Government retaliation against quality outlets based connected the contented of their reporting should interest each who worth escaped code and an autarkic media,” WCHA president Weijia Jiang said.
“We powerfully impulse the White House to reconstruct the Wall Street Journal to its erstwhile presumption successful the excavation and aboard Air Force One for the President’s upcoming travel to Scotland. The WCHA stands acceptable to enactment with the medication to find a speedy resolution.”
The Trump medication has taken akin enactment to bounds the entree of media outlets implicit their sum before.
In February, the White House began excluding the Associated Press from quality events implicit its determination to support utilizing the “Gulf of Mexico” successful immoderate cases, contempt Trump issuing an enforcement bid to rename the waterway the “Gulf of America”.
Trump has been nether unit to merchandise much accusation astir the government’s investigations into Epstein, peculiarly from segments of his “Make America Great Again” base, which had expected his medication to corroborate their content successful a conspiracy implicating almighty elites successful enactment crimes against children.
Many MAGA supporters have expressed outrage implicit the Trump administration’s handling of the alleged “Epstein files” since the merchandise of a law enforcement memo that concluded the well-connected financier died by termination and determination was nary credible grounds of him blackmailing almighty figures.
Trump, whom Epstein erstwhile described arsenic his “closest friend”, has acknowledged knowing Epstein, but said successful 2019 that they had not spoken successful 15 years aft a “falling out” betwixt the pair.
Source:
Al Jazeera and quality agencies
English (US) ·