President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the press on Saturday morning, a day after escalating his standoff with news outlets by banning CNN from traveling with him on Air Force One.

“Why should perpetrators of FAKE NEWS, like CNN and MSDNC, be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House?” he wrote on Truth Social. “Despite my big Election Win, almost 100% of ‘TRUMP’ coverage is negative, and has been for years!”

In brief remarks to reporters later on Saturday morning, the president denied that he only wanted news outlets that support him in the press pool, telling MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner, “I want real news, not fake news — like you.” He added, “I love an open, free press. I don’t like the fake press.”

Trump’s latest affront to legitimate news outlets follows a week of attempts to bend the media to his will. Unhappy about straightforward coverage of his administration, his sagging approval rating — and its drag on his party — and the impact of his policies, he has tried to freeze out news outlets that don’t deliver the coverage he wants, upending the traditional role of the White House press corps at a pivotal moment, with just over five weeks to go before the midterm elections.

Republicans have said privately they are bracing for defeat on Election Day.

The president first announced that he would ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico last week, and the outlets’ journalists were denied access to White House grounds Saturday. In the days that followed, the three outlets sued Trump and several officials in his administration and the TV network pool, which includes Fox News, suspended its coverage of Trump. The White House countered by creating “Trump TV,” an online stream of the administration’s so-called “greatest hits.”

A federal judge ordered the White House to temporarily and immediately restore the outlets’ access on Thursday, but the president nevertheless dug in and banned CNN from Air Force One for his trip to attend the Tennessee-Texas college football game.

There has been little precedent for such naked hostility toward the press from a president. Trump has routinely insulted female journalists in crass personal terms. After The Associated Press refused to use the term “Gulf of America” last year, the president booted the outlet from the press pool and still limits the AP’s access to White House coverage.

Trump has consistently sought to push the bounds of the law in his second term, and he appears to be taking a similar approach to his press ban. The law is unsettled on whether the president can ban certain outlets from certain parts of the White House. The AP’s lawsuit over the press ban is ongoing, and a federal appeals court has said that some aspects of the ban can stand for now.

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From MS Now.