‘I want real news’: Trump told a reporter he ‘loves an open, free press.’ Then he told her to be quiet mid-question

President Donald Trump spoke with reporters on Saturday as he left for Tennessee to attend a college football game. MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner later described a short exchange from that departure. According to Mediaite, Trump revealed that “loves an open, free press,” but he shut down a reporter moments later. 

Gardner said she asked whether Trump only wanted supportive outlets in the press pool. LindellTV and Real America’s Voice served that day as the designated secondary TV pool. Both outlets are considered to be aligned with the president’s views. The primary TV pool is made up of ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CNN, and those networks did not cover the departure because CNN was barred from covering the president’s travel that day.

CNN had been set to cover the trip but was replaced by LindellTV, which is owned by Trump ally Mike Lindell.

Trump answered a press-pool question by pointing to “real news” and “fake news”

Gardner said on X that the exchange opened with her question: “Do you only want outlets that support you to be a part of the press pool?” Trump answered, “No, no, no. I want real news, not fake news – like you. I want-” 

After someone called out, “Mr. President-,” he said, “Listen. I want real news. I love an open, free press. What I don’t like is the fake press where a group like CNN, few people watch it, or MSDNC, which they changed, I guess to NOW. But, you know why they changed it? Because their ratings are so bad. What I don’t like-”

Gardner then asked, “Do you not want tough questions, sir?” Trump said, “Wait, wait. Quiet. What I- what I don’t like is fake news. And they’re fake news. 100%. In two years…” She asked again, “Do you not want tough questions, sir?” He continued, “In two years, I doubt they did one good story. And I won the election in a landslide. So what we don’t want is we don’t want fake news.”

Gardner told Soboroff that Trump pointed at her while talking about “fake news.” She said she was among the reporters turned away from the White House the previous Saturday during the attempted media ban.

“He pointed at me at one point, talked about CNN, talked about M S NOW, so making very clear there that he continues to want to exclude us. But we were, I should say, allowed into this open press event today,” she said. Trump’s public criticism of the press has sometimes been preceded by private frustration with his allies‘ TV defenses. 

The outlets whose credentials were disabled later filed suit. A judge ordered the ban reversed, and she said the reversal came after a significant delay. Trump accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of publishing “fake news” and kept criticizing the media in Saturday Truth Social posts.