Axios reports that the White House is barring the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the AP’s refusal to obey President Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. See https://www.axios.com/2025/02/17/trump-ap-gulf-america-mexico.
I’m proud to report that my former colleagues at Reuters have maintained a similar naming convention. Perhaps they will be the next news organization banned from access and we will be left with only NewsMax, Breitbart and Steve Bannon’s War Room to cover the Presidency.

The White House Press Corresponds Association has protested the AP’s expulsion, but more is required: All responsible news organizations (Fox and WSJ included) should boycott White House press conferences, gaggles and Air Force One flights until the AP is reinstated. Failing to band together now will only embolden this administration to flex its censorial muscles more aggressively. When Trump declares that all news groups must hereafter refer to Greenland as “Trumpland” or Mars as “Elonworld” will they bend the knee?

I understand more than most the competitive demands of the news business and the threat that lack of access to the world’s number one newsmaker entails. All the more reason to stand up and be counted today. The Gulf of Trump today is but an early test similar to the inauguration crowd size at the beginning of Trump I. It is also a distraction and diversion from more serious threats to the republic.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his famous 1787 letter to Edward Carrington:

“… were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Originally published on Substack at https://open.substack.com/pub/tomglocer/p/the-gulf-of-trump