White house launches Trump TV amid us media boycott
The White House has launched a streaming channel dubbed “Trump TV”, giving viewers access to content from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The White House announced the channel in a late Monday post, saying it would be updated in real time with past major moments, announcements and the latest developments from the administration.
“Not every big moment has made it on your TV, now it can,” the White House said.
The stream, titled “TRUMP TV: The Essentials Station”, is available on the White House website and its YouTube channel.
The launch comes amid an escalating dispute between the Trump administration and several US media organisations.
On Friday, Trump announced a ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico, accusing the organisations of publishing “fiction or lies” about his administration. The outlets said their reporters were denied access to the White House on Saturday.
A coalition of major US networks, including ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC, subsequently suspended their pooled coverage of Trump ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in solidarity with the barred outlets.
In a joint statement on Monday, the networks said they were pursuing legal action to “defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.
Trump, however, described the news organisations as “Third Rate Clowns” and the “Crooked and Corrupt Press”, accusing them of trivialising and demeaning his achievements.
The dispute is the latest in a series of tensions between the Trump administration and the US media.
In February, the White House announced that it would take control of the press pool that has access to Trump. The pool had for more than a century been managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The administration also moved that month to bar Associated Press reporters and photographers from restricted-access spaces over the outlet’s continued use of the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”.
The Associated Press subsequently filed a lawsuit, which remains ongoing.
