| February 17, 2025 09:50:10 AM |
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| February 17, 2025 09:50:10 AM |
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For nearly a week, the White House has barred Associated Press journalists from attending events with President Donald Trump. We look at the ongoing dispute, which the White House says is over the news agency’s independent editorial standards regarding the naming of the Gulf of Mexico.
Welcome to this week’s edition of AP Ground Game. |
Hi, I’m Anna Johnson, AP’s Washington Bureau Chief. For over 175 years, AP has delivered factual, nonpartisan and accurate news. Today, AP journalists continue that tradition as we report about the Trump administration, the new Congress, and the impact what happens in Washington has across the United States and around the world. Help us sustain this critical work by supporting the AP today. Donate.
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President Donald Trump waves to a small group of supporters as he leaves the Trump International Golf Club, Saturday, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) |
AP journalists limited from covering Trump over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ terminology dispute
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AP journalists have been barred from a news conference with India’s leader and several Oval Office events. On Friday, they were stopped from boarding Air Force One for travel to Trump’s Florida residence, a decision they were told was “outlet-specific,” and which continued through the long weekend. At the time this newsletter was sent, the ban remained in place.
It’s all because the news outlet – whose journalism reaches 4 billion people every day, around the world – has not followed Trump’s lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially outside U.S. territory, to the “Gulf of America.”
The White House says it is blocking AP because of the news outlet’s editorial guidance regarding the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office that changes the name to the Gulf of America – but his order only applies within the United States.
The White House says it will ban AP indefinitely from the press “pool” – the small group of outlets that covers the president during Oval Office events and on Air Force One. For decades, AP reporters and photographers have been part of the pool, documenting history and asking questions that hold presidents from both parties to account. The AP says that what’s at stake is more than the naming convention for a geographic location. On Friday night, AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said the White House’s moves “chip away” at the constitutional right to free speech.
As a global news organization that provides journalism to outlets around the world, AP’s influential stylebook sets guidance around language and usage that can be widely understood. In this instance, AP’s guidance is to continue using the name Gulf of Mexico while also referencing Trump’s executive order changing the name to Gulf of America. Read more.
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Of note:
At the same time, the AP switched style last month from Denali to Mount McKinley for the mountain in Alaska that Trump ordered renamed. That location lies entirely within U.S. jurisdiction. |
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DOGE’s about-face on nuclear weapons workers |
The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs. Experts are cautioning about the safety risk of DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting.
Three U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late Thursday. Some lost access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning and find they were locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
One of the hardest-hit offices was the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30% of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.
The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.
By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members. Read more. |
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Of note:
While some of the Energy Department employees who were fired dealt with energy efficiency and the effects of climate change, issues not seen as priorities by the Trump administration, many others dealt with nuclear issues, even if they didn’t directly work on weapons programs. This included managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material there doesn’t further contaminate nearby communities. |
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Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s Gaza idea |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday signaled that he was moving ahead with Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza, calling it “the only viable plan to enable a different future” for the region.
Netanyahu discussed the plan with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who kicked off a Middle East visit by endorsing Israel’s war aims in Gaza, saying Hamas “must be eradicated.” That created further doubt around the shaky ceasefire as talks on its second phase are yet to begin.
Rubio, in his upcoming stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is likely to face more pushback over Trump’s proposal, which includes redeveloping Gaza under U.S. ownership. Netanyahu has said all emigration from Gaza should be “voluntary,” but rights groups and other critics say that the plan amounts to coercion given the territory’s vast destruction. Read more.
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Of note:
Netanyahu said he and Trump have a “common strategy” for Gaza. Echoing Trump, he said “the gates of hell would be open” if Hamas doesn’t release dozens of remaining hostages abducted in the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the 16-month war. |
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President Donald Trump rides in the presidential limousine known as "The Beast" as he takes a pace lap ahead of the start of the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday. (Pool via AP) |
- Trump begins the week at his Mar-a-Lago residence, where he spent the weekend, and has not released a public schedule.
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