OK, I think most of us can agree that Donald Trump’s latest authoritarian gambit — to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House — is unconstitutional, but …

It’s also a great opportunity.

You have to hear me out on this one. Like many of you, I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment and especially the part about freedom of the press, which allows me to write this column today.

But over the long course of the MAGA era, many in the media have struggled — to put it mildly — to come up with a way to thoroughly cover Trump’s dangerously authoritarian presidency without also enabling it.

It’s fair to say that, on the whole, we’ve failed. Bigly.

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We started failing by supplying nonstop coverage of his rallies — often un-fact-checked — when he was first running for president. At every rally, even up to now, he takes time to mock the press as fake news and leads the crowd in giving those corralled in the press pen the figurative, or often literal, finger.

He loves it. This is the war Trump can win and has been winning enough that he somehow got himself elected president twice. The truth is he loves the media, or at least media attention, almost as much as he loves calling female reporters little piggies. But the ban makes him seem tough at a time when his toughness is flagging and his approval ratings are dropping like the bombs he still occasionally drops on Iran.

The ban, of course, is not really about anything that the offending news organizations have reported — I mean, is he just now learning that MS NOW tends to cover his presidency critically? — but about providing a distraction from, let’s say, the war in Iran, the rising price of gas, the economy in general, another ICE shooting, and everything else that has led to his approval ratings free falling to the mid-30s.

It’s a diversion. Like his Kennedy Center tantrum. Or his declaration that his gigantic triumphant arch would double as the first line of defense, featuring snipers and drones, of Washington from, well, I’m not sure who. Is there another No Kings rally scheduled?

But, whatever the reason, it’s definitely backfiring on him — and just in time for the midterms.

As you’ve no doubt heard, the other networks, in a rare display of media courage and solidarity, have boycotted the White House TV pool — which, in normal times, follows the president’s every move — thereby robbing Trump of both oxygen and TV cameras, which to him are basically the same thing.

I’m a little surprised, but very pleased, that ABC, NBC, CBS and even Fox News have joined the fray in solidarity with CNN. The five networks man the TV pool on a rotating basis. As of Monday morning, when CNN was supposed to supply the feed, the pool was empty. And it will stay that way, I’m guessing, until Trump gives in or a judge forces him to.

☀️ MORE FROM MIKE LITTWIN

There’s a hearing Wednesday afternoon in federal court in D.C. where the banned organizations appear before U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly.

The judge is a Trump appointee, but maybe not a Trump sycophant. It’s the same judge who in 2018, when Trump revoked journalist Jim Acosta’s press pass, ruled that it likely violated his due process rights. Acosta got his pass back. You figure there’s a decent chance Kelly will do much the same again.

But, if he doesn’t, the news media — of which I’m a long-standing, semi-proud member — must not stop there. This would be the big opportunity.

Every legitimate media organization with White House access should join the boycott. That’s the Times, the Post, the Wall Street Journal. The whole gang.

That wouldn’t stop the media from covering Trump. But it would change the terms of engagement and, very likely, send Trump reeling.

In explaining the White House ban, Trump has raged about the unfairness and negativity of the press. In addressing one of Trump’s rants — “It’s sick,” Trump told the press. “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories” — the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart paused, allowing us to appreciate that Trump can’t actually constitutionally ban “negative” stories, before continuing.

Stewart suggested to Trump that he had options: He could either ban the press for its negativity or be a better (bleeping) president.

Trump, meanwhile, offered up his own option — TRUMP TV: The Essentials Station. It can be seen 24/7 on the White House YouTube feed.

If you haven’t tuned in yet, it could not be less essential.

For those who, like me, worry that this amounts to the latest in Trump’s Orwellian ventures — state-run TV — you can relax, at least for now. So far, it’s all reruns.

Its first offering was an uncut version of Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech, in which he veered from American exceptionalism to the “mortal threat” of communism to our country. On Tuesday morning, if that wasn’t enough for you, you could have watched Melania’s address at the 2025 International Women of Courage Awards. According to reports, this piece was playing to an audience of about a thousand people.

In other words, it’s like C-SPAN for MAGA cultists.

I don’t know why the people running the new outlet didn’t offer up one of Trump’s latest rants on fake news. Like this posting on Trump’s social media, possibly read by, say, Kid Rock. Wouldn’t that be can’t-miss TV?

“Virtually every story about me, or having anything to do with me, is negative, wrong, and in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country!” Trump wrote. “No matter how GREAT my Achievements, they trivialize and demean. FAKE NEWS IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, and I will be whatever is necessary to make sure the U.S.A. thrives.”

We know the real threat to democracy. It’s not Kaitlan Collins. It’s not Rachel Maddow.

It’s surely not the U.S. Constitution.

It belongs to the face that may not be looking back (down?) at us from the Oval Office until a judge rules or until Trump does his inevitable TACO. Could he really survive that idea that the TV pool cameras wouldn’t be running on Thursday to cover his extravagant White House welcome to his buddy, Xi Jinping?

I don’t know. But it would definitely be appointment TV.

Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.

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