JD Vance Insists Trump 'Not Banning Media' When He Says 'I Am Banning' Press Outlets

Vice President JD Vance insisted President Donald Trump is "not banning media outlets," three days after the president literally said that he was "banning" three of them.

Vance took questions from reporters Monday morning at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, shortly before leaving for a campaign stop in North Carolina. The White House rapid response account posted a clip of the exchange on X at 10:47 a.m., stacking the vice president's denial directly above a screenshot of Trump's announcement.

"Do you think it's appropriate for the president to be banning media outlets just because he doesn't like what they report?" a reporter asked.

"Well, I take some issue with the premise. So he's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying, we're not gonna give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda," Vance replied.

Trump announced the ban Friday in a Truth Social post that named CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW … and Politico … from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS! … Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow," Trump wrote.

"Sir, you talked a lot about free speech over the years. How is this not an attack on free speech?" a second reporter asked at the Maryland air base.

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Fox News Host Advising Trump Pushes White House Press Ban Over Report On His Stepson

Fox News host Mark Levin backed President Donald Trump's ban on Politico at the White House, citing the outlet's report on his stepson.

Levin made his case Monday in a post on X, hours after Politico's Playbook newsletter reported that his stepson had solicited cash wedding gifts from Israeli citizens.

The stepson, David Milstein, is a senior adviser to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and holds a top-secret security clearance, according to Playbook.

"President Trump was right to ban Politico from the White House. And I want to tell you why, and about a specific situation this morning involving my stepson, David Milstein," Levin wrote.

Trump announced the ban three days earlier, writing on Truth Social on Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be barred because of their "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS," the Guardian reported. Journalists from all three outlets had their White House badges disabled Saturday, the paper said.

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Meta’s Muse is outpacing ChatGPT’s early mobile launch

Meta’s new AI agent Muse has racked up more downloads and daily active users in the U.S. and Canada than ChatGPT did over the same period after its mobile debut, according to new estimates from Appfigures.

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Van Orden Thinks First Gay President Will Be Republican

Last week, Pete Buttigieg said that he thought America was ready for a gay President. TMZ reporter Charlie Cotton asked Rep. Drunken Van Orden whether he agreed with Buttigieg. DVO's answer will leave you flabbergasted.

Before answering the question, DVO bragged about being endorsed by the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay caucus of the Republican Party. DVO also boasted that he didn't worry about a person's sexuality and that he never considered it. Yet this is the same DVO who had a public temper tantrum in the Prairie du Chien Memorial Library over a Pride Month display, screaming and threatening a 17-year-old girl. All that alcohol probably killed off some of his memory brain cells.

Eventually, DVO got around to answering the question by saying that he thought the first gay president would be Republican. The reasoning behind this statement is absurd:

Rep. Derrick Van Orden tells @hicharliecotton that Black voters aren't ready for a gay president. pic.twitter.com/3GJDjYWCG4

— TMZ (@TMZ) September 17, 2026

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Is the AI industry really ready to slow down?

On Equity, we debated whether Ai executives are serious about wanting to slow down.

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Third Party Attack Ad Against Talarico Backfires Hilariously

Protect America's Future Super PAC, a right-wing, dark-money, special-interest group, released an attack ad against James Talarico and accidentally hit Rep. Brandon Gill.

The ad shows Gill driving a car and saying all sorts of nasty and untrue allegations against Talarico, such as that he supports child rapists, that he supports child mutilation, etc. The only problem is that the captions don't mention Talarico. All they show is a picture of Gill's ugly face next to the words "protects child predators."

Oh well, Gill can always say that it shows how much he supports Trump.

The moral of the story is to always use a good comms person before releasing an ad.

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Donate To Duffy's Son-In-Law, Win A Prize

Michael Alfonso, Trans Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law, has raised $1.35 million in his campaign to fill Duffy's old seat in Congress. But only 5% of that money came from small donors who gave $200 or less.

Per a report from The Bulwark, much of Alfonso's money came from transportation CEOs, lobbyists, and PACs. And what is surely a massive coincidence, each of those big-money donors who gave to Alfonso received a large favor from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Funny how that works, isn't it?

For example, David Parker, chairman and CEO of the trucking company Covenant Logistics, and his wife each gave Alfonso $10,000. Just a few weeks later, just long enough for the checks to clear, USDOT granted another five-year exemption from driver supervision requirements. As I said, I'm sure it's just an amazing coincidence.

Just like all the other times that have happened, too, with other companies.

In another example of sheer coincidence, Duffy's dormant campaign donated $1.5 million to a Super PAC supporting Alfonso. That is more money than Alfonso got through those other happenstance donations and rewards put together.

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