The Daily Fuckup

As of Feb. 22, 2025, the White House dispute with the Associated Press was still unresolved. What began as a fight over wording had hardened into a broader question about whether the administration could use access to presidential events as leverage over a newsroom’s editorial choices.

The conflict started after President Donald Trump pushed federal agencies to use “Gulf of America” for the body of water long called the Gulf of Mexico. The AP did not change its style guidance. In response, White House officials limited AP access at some events. The AP has argued that its stylebook is independent and that attendance at presidential coverage should not depend on repeating the government’s preferred language.

On Feb. 21, the AP sued three Trump administration officials over the restrictions. That turned the fight into a legal test that was still pending as of Feb. 22: the AP said the government could not penalize a newsroom for declining to use a presidentially preferred term, while the administration maintained the restriction would stay in place unless the AP changed its wording.

The White House can set its own language for official use. It cannot, at least without a court ruling in its favor, assume that power extends to forcing independent news organizations to adopt the same terminology as a condition of access. That is the dispute now before the court, and it is bigger than one phrase on one map.