The Record  Trump’s second term, documented
Turning the government’s power to his own ends

He barred the AP from covering him for refusing to say “Gulf of America,” and a judge he appointed ruled it violated the First Amendment.

April 8, 2025His own side confirms

On his first day in office, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” by executive order. When the Associated Press kept the long-standing name in its global stylebook, the White House barred its reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and the press pool. The AP sued, and in April 2025 US District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled the ban unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination: once the government opens its doors to some reporters, it “cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints.” The administration appealed, and a divided appeals court let the ban stand while the case proceeds. Forty-six news organizations, including Fox News, backed the AP.

SourcesJudge McFadden’s ruling (NPR) · Timeline and appeal stay (U.S. Press Freedom Tracker) · 46 outlets, incl. Fox, backed the AP (RCFP)

He barred the AP from covering him for refusing to say “Gulf of America,” and a judge he appointed ruled it violated the First Amendment.
More on this
His Homeland Security signed a $464 million no-bid contract for planes it said it urgently needed to deport people, then let them sit parked for months, turned three into luxury jets, and lent one to the FBI director.His DHS waived dozens of laws to bulldoze a border wall through Big Bend National Park, over a cease-and-desist from Texas’s Republican land commissioner and the objections of seven former park superintendents.He ordered the Navy to rip out the electromagnetic catapults on its newest carriers and go back to 1950s steam, at a cost of billions, just as China put the very same technology to sea.

← Back to the full record