House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) declared Thursday morning that President Donald Trump “and the extremists” had lost in court once again, hours after a federal judge ordered the White House to restore press credentials to three news organizations Trump had banned from the complex less than a week earlier. Jeffries posted his reaction on X at 8:13 a.m. on September 24, 2026, as reporters from the affected outlets said they were still being turned away at White House gates.
The Full Post
The complete text of the post, published by Jeffries on his official X account, reads:
“The White House has just been ordered by a Federal Judge to restore press access.
Donald Trump and the extremists have lost in Court.
Again.”
The post came hours after the ruling, which was issued in the early morning. It named neither the judge nor the outlets involved.
The Ruling Behind the Post
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the District of Columbia issued the order shortly after midnight, granting CNN, MS NOW and Politico a 14-day temporary restraining order. He directed the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the hard-pass credentials held by employees of the three outlets. Kelly, whom Trump nominated to the bench in 2017, found the outlets likely to succeed on their claim that their passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process.
How the Ban Unfolded
The dispute began Friday, September 18, when Trump announced on Truth Social that he was banning the three outlets from the White House, saying media organizations should not be able to constantly report “FICTION and LIES” about his administration. He added that other outlets would follow. Speaking in the Oval Office later that day, Trump said the ban was a response to cumulative stories from the outlets and told reporters it was worthwhile to draw attention to the issue “whether it survives or doesn’t.”
On Saturday, CNN’s Betsy Klein, MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett arrived for work and were denied entry, and Secret Service officers confiscated or disabled their credentials. CNN called the ban an “illegal assault” on its constitutional rights. MS NOW said it would take every step necessary to defend its First Amendment rights, and Politico said it would vigorously defend its journalists.
The three outlets sued on Monday, saying the ban violated their First Amendment and due process rights and that their credentials were revoked without notice or process because the administration objected to their reporting. Other media companies scaled back their routine coverage of presidential events in solidarity.
The Court Fight
In a filing Tuesday night, the Justice Department argued that the ban rested on national security concerns and that the president had the legal right to impose it. Trump had not cited that rationale when he announced the ban. At a hearing Wednesday, Kelly said due process “wasn’t followed,” and he questioned whether letters the White House sent after the passes were revoked could satisfy constitutional requirements. Theodore Boutrous, the outlets’ lead attorney, called the case “probably the clearest case in history” of viewpoint discrimination.
In the written ruling, Kelly wrote that nothing in the record predating the lawsuit suggested the revocations were motivated by national security. He noted that Trump’s own announcement focused on the perceived negativity and untruthfulness of the coverage. He also described the conduct standard in the White House’s letters to the outlets as too vague to be effective. The order rests on Fifth Amendment due process grounds and does not yet resolve the First Amendment claims, and Kelly is still weighing a longer-term block on the ban.
Boutrous welcomed the decision, calling it “a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press” and thanking the court for acting swiftly.
Jeffries’ Message and His Record on Press Freedom
Jeffries’ post covers the ruling in three short lines: the order itself, the loss he attributes to Trump “and the extremists,” and a one-word closing, “Again.” The post does not say which earlier defeats the final word refers to. Trump’s efforts to limit press access have repeatedly drawn court challenges, including the 2018 revocation of CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials, which Kelly himself found likely unconstitutional.
Jeffries has spoken on press and speech rights before. In a statement on his official website following the return of Jimmy Kimmel to television, he said “freedom of speech is under attack in the United States of America” and accused Trump of weaponizing the federal government against Americans who disagree with him. The statement also urged media companies to hold the line against what Jeffries called unconstitutional attacks on the First Amendment. A review of his official website turned up no separate statement on the CNN, MS NOW and Politico ban beyond his X post.
The Order Is Not Yet Being Followed
The celebration came as the outlets said the order was not being honored. Hours after the ruling, reporters from all three organizations said some of their journalists were refused entry, and Politico reported that one of its reporters had a credential taken away. Their lawyers filed a notice of noncompliance and asked for an immediate hearing, writing that the defendants had “already repeatedly violated the court’s order.” Kelly directed the Justice Department to respond by 12:30 p.m. ET Thursday. The White House had not responded to a request for comment from the Associated Press, and had given no details on why journalists were turned away.
A Pattern of Press Access Fights
Disputes over press access have been a fixture of Trump’s presidency. In his first term, the White House revoked the credentials of Acosta and one other reporter, and both regained them after going to court. At the start of his second term, Trump excluded The Associated Press from the pool of journalists covering the president in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One, and that case remains in litigation. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also imposed reporting and access restrictions on news organizations at the Pentagon, some of which The New York Times successfully challenged in court while the Pentagon appeals.
What Comes Next
The restraining order runs 14 days while litigation continues, and the White House had set a Friday deadline for the outlets to contest the ban through its own process. The government has asked the court to overturn a roughly 50-year-old appeals court precedent recognizing a due process interest in White House press credentials, a step only a higher court could take. The ruling arrived hours before Trump was set to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the White House, a visit the affected outlets were expected to cover.