Veteran reporter Jim Acosta said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s exclusion of certain journalists from White House press access is “not the American way,” according to comments he made on MS NOW’s “The Briefing.” Breitbart News reported on the remarks.
Acosta, who has clashed with the Trump administration over press access in the past, framed the dispute as more than a disagreement over credentials. He described it as part of a wider campaign by the president and his supporters to reshape the country’s news media.
A Broader Fight Over the Press
“This is not just Trump taking away hard passes and press passes and that,” Acosta said. “This is a whole of government, whole of society approach by the far right, led by Donald Trump, to take over the news media in this country and basically have a state-media-like system.”
He argued that decisions about which outlets can report from the White House are only a small part of a much larger conflict. “Not only deciding who gets to cover the White House, that’s small potatoes compared to what they’re trying to do,” Acosta said. “They’re having MAGA families take over our news networks. The oligarchs should not own the news in this country. The people should be in control of the news in this country.”
Acosta’s comments came as the Trump administration has moved to limit access for some news organizations, a step that has drawn sharp criticism from press freedom advocates and journalists. The White House has defended its approach, saying it has the right to decide who occupies the limited seats in the briefing room and aboard Air Force One.
‘Not the American Way’
The former CNN anchor, who now works for MS NOW, returned repeatedly to the idea that the dispute is about something larger than credentials. “It’s just not the American way,” he said. “This is about the American way of life.”
He posed the question he said is at the heart of the matter: “Are we going to have news organizations have access to a federal government building where there are federal employees running the country, or are we not?”
Acosta answered his own question by condemning the president’s posture toward the press. “And to me, it is completely un-American for Donald Trump to ban the press in this fashion and go after and bash the press in this fashion,” he said. “It’s just not the American way.”
The remarks echo a long-running debate over the relationship between the executive branch and the journalists who cover it. Successive administrations have wrestled with how much access to grant to outlets whose coverage they dislike, but the current fight has taken on a more confrontational tone. Trump has frequently derided the press as the “enemy of the people,” a phrase that has alarmed media watchdogs.
Acosta’s own history with the White House adds a personal dimension to his comments. During Trump’s first term, the administration revoked his press pass following a contentious exchange at a news conference, a decision that prompted a legal challenge from CNN. A federal judge later ruled in CNN’s favor and ordered the pass restored, though Acosta ultimately left the network in 2024.
His latest remarks signal that the debate over press access is far from settled. For Acosta, the stakes extend well beyond the briefing room. “The oligarchs should not own the news in this country,” he said. “The people should be in control of the news in this country.”
Breitbart News reported on Acosta’s appearance and provided the quotes from the segment.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/10/01/jim-acosta-trumps-press-ban-is-not-the-american-way/