Critics are calling the White House’s new in-house streaming channel exactly what it looks like — state television. “Trump TV: The Essentials Station” launched Monday on YouTube, hours after the administration banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW reporters from White House grounds over their coverage.
Aquilino Gonell, a former US Capitol Police officer who defended the building during the January 6 attack, called it “official state-run media” in a post on X. HuffPost deputy editor Philip Lewis used nearly identical language, describing it as a “state-run propaganda network.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, referring to Trump, wrote that “he’s launching what is quite literally state-run TV” to drown out his administration’s troubles.
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The channel itself is modest — a livestream on the official White House YouTube page, compiling presidential remarks and administration highlights, free to watch with no app or provider required. Its first broadcast was a recording of Trump’s July 3 Mount Rushmore speech.
ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC jointly declined to provide a replacement television pooler after the administration blocked CNN from its scheduled White House duties, and Trump’s remarks at the new White House helipad’s ribbon-cutting were drowned out by helicopter noise with no pool microphone there to capture clean audio.
Not so at Gracie Mansion, where Trump met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani the same day — Mamdani deliberately invited every outlet, banned or not, to cover it. He said afterward he’d told Trump they would have “all of the members of the press here on the lawn.”
CNN ended up broadcasting the press conference, relying on footage from NY1’s cameras. The five pool networks said in a joint statement, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government.”
CNN, Politico and MS NOW have since sued over the credential revocations, alleging First Amendment and due-process violations; a federal hearing on the case is scheduled for Wednesday.
Read: Trump-Appointed Judge, Who Trump Attacked, Will Hear White House Media Ban Case
