Here’s why Trump banned AP reporters — but not photographers

An Associated Press (AP) lawsuit against the Trump administration has revealed a curious White House position on press access, the New York Times reports.

The White House banned the Associated Press (AP) from accessing certain areas — including the Oval Office and Air Force One — due to the AP's refusal to use "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico" based on an executive order from President Donald Trump.

The AP has been barred from covering specific events because it acknowledges the president's executive order but will continue to use the original name in its reporting. The AP claims the ban violates the First Amendment.

"Arguments in that case are set to continue on Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit," the Times writes. "At stake is whether the president is entitled to curate the crew of reporters who cover official events in the Oval Office. Can he boot those whose work he doesn’t like?"

Something curious, they write, has been discovered as this case ramps up: The administration has restored front line access to "AP photographers, even as it often excludes AP’s reporters from press pool events."

Evan Vucci, the chief Washington photographer for the AP tells the Times, "For me, I’m back to normal, completely. It’s like nothing happened, and it’s completely different for the print side of things.”

"The administration’s forked policy has the appearance of illogic. Why make a fuss of stiff-arming the AP only to welcome its photographers back into the fold?" the Times asks.

Experts say this "contradictory approach" is par for Trump's course, and note he "is eager to energize his MAGA base by bashing the work of mainstream journalists while keeping them close enough to carry his message to the world and perhaps take a memorable photo or two of him in action."

Susan Mulcahy, a former New York Post reporter, says this is how he operates, explaining, "He will trash a press person when he doesn’t get what he wants, but he’s never going to totally throw out an important press organization. He’s not. He needs them. That’s his oxygen.”

The AP's top lawyer Karen Kaiser says the press pool "demotion" remains a serious problem.

"The government should not be permitted to pick its coverage based on what it likes or doesn’t like. These principles transcend any administration, any news organization and any journalist," Kaiser says.

Traditionally, it's the AP photographer who is first to enter rooms where events are taking place, the Times explains, and the organization had two slots in the press room — one for a reporter and the other the photographer — until the "Gulf of America" situation.

"We didn’t have any inkling that we were a target or would be retaliated against,” AP''s executive editor Julie Pace says.

In April, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in the AP’s favor and issued a preliminary injunction rescinding the access denial, explains the Times. The Trump administration then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which put enforcement of that injunction on pause two months later.

During the legal maneuverings, the White House has "maintained its bifurcated access standards for AP photographers and reporters," the Times notes.

"AP officials said they had not received an explanation about the policy, and the White House did not provide a specific rationale in response to questions from The New York Times," they write, adding that "Trump has made it clear he likes seeing himself in AP photography."

The AP's Vucci was the one who took the now-infamous fist pump photo of the president following his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Marc Fisher, Trump biographer and a former Washington Post reporter, says Trump and his aides “view the photographers as less dangerous and less antagonistic than reporters.”

“To him, a great news photo, a great magazine cover, is more important than a great podcast appearance, just because he is and will always be an artifact of the ’50s and ’60s," Fisher says.

Meanwhile, reporters await the court's decision on their fate inside the press pool.

Zeke Miller, former AP chief White House correspondent turned deputy Washington bureau chief says, "We ask to join the pool pretty much every day or before every event. We ask to join the trips. Most often we’re told the pool is full, but others are getting in.”