The White House blocked Politico from accessing Air Force One on Monday, leaving the news outlet unable to fulfill its pool responsibilities as President Donald Trump travels to Nebraska, a Politico spokesperson confirmed to MS NOW.

Politico was assigned to be the out-of-town travel print pool during Trump’s trip to Grand Island, Nebraska, where he is scheduled to participate in a rally Monday with incumbent Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts. But the White House barred Politico from traveling on Air Force One alongside the president and the other pool reporters.

The White House pool is a long-standing agreement between the White House and news outlets in which a small group of journalists shares its observations of the president with the broader press corps. This lets smaller outlets access a daily record of the presidency without taking on related travel costs.

The White House Correspondents’ Association sets the daily coverage rotation for the primary print pool. The White House typically sends out guidance each night regarding the next day’s pool coverage. Though the White House listed in-town pool coverage for Monday in its guidance that went out Sunday evening, it did not list the out-of-town pool.

A White House official characterized traveling with the president on Air Force One as “a privilege not a right” and pledged that Trump “will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press.”

The White House’s decision to block Politico’s access to Air Force One, first reported by CNN, comes as the latest escalation in the ongoing feud between the federal government and media outlets, including MS NOW, that the president has sought to ban from the White House.

MS NOW, CNN and Politico sued the White House over the ban, which a judge temporarily blocked last month. Still, some reporters from the outlets have been blocked from access to the White House or Air Force One. On Friday, the Trump administration insisted in a new filing that it has the right to ban the journalists.

The current legal battle is focused on access to the White House itself as it existed before Trump’s ban went into effect Sept. 18. The lawsuit does not directly address the question of pool access, but the issue has emerged in related legal filings — news outlets must have White House credentials to participate in the pool — and will likely arise in a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

The Trump administration’s latest move banning Politico from the presidential plane may be on stronger legal footing than its ongoing White House ban. Last year, in a case involving The Associated Press, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the Trump administration could restrict access to spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One for certain news organizations because those spaces are not official forums. That case remains ongoing.

Jesse Rodriguez and Fallon Gallagher contributed reporting.

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