US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would keep restricting Associated Press access to the White House until the news agency obeyed his order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.
“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump told reporters at his estate in Florida.
The White House has blocked AP journalists from Air Force One and the Oval Office, arguing that the agency was ignoring a lawful name change. The agency has retained access to the White House complex itself.
“The Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is,” Trump said Tuesday.
“It’s called the Gulf of America now. It’s not called the Gulf of Mexico any longer,” he continued.
It was the first time the president himself had commented on the issue since the White House began not allowing AP to cover several of his events last week. Two journalists from AP were denied entrance to Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday; they watched a live television feed of Trump’s remarks and were unable to ask questions.
