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The White House has launched a 24-hour streaming channel, “TRUMP TV: The Essentials Station”, following a decision by major US television networks to suspend pooled video coverage of President Donald Trump’s events.
The channel, available on the White House website and YouTube, will broadcast major moments from the administration, official announcements and other developments, with content updated in real time.
“Not every big moment has made it on your TV, now it can,” the White House said in announcing the platform.
The move followed Trump’s decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the organisations of publishing what he described as “fiction or lies” about his administration. Journalists from the affected outlets were subsequently denied access to the White House grounds and had their press passes confiscated.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News subsequently suspended pooled video coverage of Trump’s presidential events in response to the restrictions.
Trump has also described the affected organisations as “Third Rate Clowns” and “Crooked and Corrupt Press”, accusing them of “trivialising and demeaning” his achievements.
The dispute is the latest development in changes to White House media access under the Trump administration.
In February, the White House announced that it would take control of the presidential press pool, which had been managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association for more than a century.
The administration also restricted Associated Press journalists from certain areas after the news agency continued using the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”, following Trump’s renaming directive.
