Press secretary declines to back down from Trump’s threat to strip reporters of credentials if he doesn’t like what they write

The White House has refused to back down from Donald Trump’s threat to ban media organizations regarded as unfairly critical.

The US president first tweeted the threat on Wednesday, claiming that “despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else,” most news about him is “negative (Fake)”. 

Trump added: “Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”

It was the latest broadside in Trump’s long-running feud with the media, which he has previously condemned as “the enemy of the people”.

There was swift backlash from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA). Its president, Margaret Talev, said: “Some may excuse the president’s inflammatory rhetoric about the media, but just because the president does not like news coverage does not make it fake.

“A free press must be able to report on the good, the bad, the momentous and the mundane, without fear or favour. And a president preventing a free and independent press from covering the workings of our republic would be an unconscionable assault on the first amendment.”

At Wednesday’s media briefing, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, defended the concept of a free press, but declined to explicitly rule out stripping reporters of their credentials if Trump does not like what they write.

“We’re very committed to a free press and I think we demonstrate that every single day, not only by me being up here and taking your questions as I’m doing right now,” she said.

She insisted that Trump also speaks to the press regularly and is committed to access. But Sanders added: “At the same time, the press has a responsibility to put out accurate information.”

The press secretary accused the the New York Times of describing the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, as “awol” while he was in fact retrieving American hostages from North Korea and the Washington Post of suggesting that the first lady, Melania Trump, does not live in the White House. Both reports were “outrageous”, she claimed.

Sanders went on: “We are here, we are taking questions, we are doing everything we can to provide regular and constant information to the American people and there is a responsibility by you guys to provide accurate information, and we’re going to continue to try to work with you as I’m doing right here, right now, and as the president did a couple of hours ago.”

Trump has a mixed record on engagement with the media. He has only given one solo press conference since becoming president, significantly fewer than his predecessors, although he does hold joint press conferences with foreign leaders and regularly responds to shouted questions from reporters before meetings and on the White House south lawn.

He has been praised for allowing cameras into sensitive meetings, but there was controversy in February last year when Sean Spicer, who was then his press secretary, barred several news organisations from an off-camera briefing. Both Spicer and Sanders have been widely criticised for defending Trump’s false or misleading statements.