President Trump has tried repeatedly to retaliate against journalists, angered by what he considers disrespectful behavior.
The Washington Post reported Friday that Trump has spoken to staffers about banning CNN’s Jim Acosta and Urban Radio Networks’ April Ryan from White House events. Ryan is also a CNN contributor. Both reporters have had, at times, a testy relationship with press secretary Sarah Sanders during the briefings. Trump often takes verbal jabs at Acosta.
White House staffers have abstained from acting on Trump’s frustrations, telling him that such actions could come back to bite him.
[Related: Mike Pence on White House banning CNN reporter: We are ‘maintaining decorum that is due’]
This week, however, Sanders and deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine told CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins that she was no longer allowed to attend an open-press event in the Rose Garden because of the way she asked Trump questions during a press pool spray, when just a few journalists cover the president’s comments and distribute them to the full press corps.
The Post reported that Trump has become most irritated when reporters ask him questions on formal occasions, such as Rose Garden events or the pool sprays.
“Is there nothing that we could do?” Trump has asked, according to a former White House official.
He has reportedly asked staffers to revoke press credentials or ban reporters’ access to events.
White House officials told the Post the president takes issue with the tone of the questions more than what reporters are asking about.
Trump objects to “the shouting and the pouting long after the press corps has been politely asked to leave the room,” Kellyanne Conway told reporters Thursday.
[Carl Bernstein: CNN is to the Trump era what the Washington Post was to Watergate]
