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When The Associated Press didn’t bow to President Donald Trump’s demand to refer to the Gulf of Mexico solely as the “Gulf of America,” he barred the news service from events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. And when a judge determined that Trump’s decision to do so was unconstitutional, he spiked the permanent press pool slot for wire services entirely.

These decisions to shun newsrooms may sound like the product of a tantrum — and they are — but there is also a pattern at play: Trump is testing the limits of the First Amendment.

This (un)constitutional experiment started in his first term, when he revoked the credentials of individual journalists he disliked. One of them was Brian Karem, a former White House correspondent who covered Trump for Playboy.

Karem spoke about that experience and today’s press restrictions in a webinar hosted by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) on April 16, 2025. He was joined by Caitlin Vogus, senior adviser at FPF, and Stephanie Sugars, who regularly reports on issues of press access to the White House as senior reporter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of FPF.

Karem, who successfully sued the Trump administration three separate times to get his press pass reinstated, emphasized that Trump’s denial of access to the AP is also a broader attack on wire services like Reuters and Bloomberg. Cash-strapped local newsrooms often rely on wire reporting to fill pages and inform readers, which is much harder to do when those services are sidelined.

“The whole point of this is to limit those who will ask questions that Donald Trump doesn’t want to answer,” Karem said during the webinar. “The effect, of course, for people across the country, is a slanted view of the news.”

In cherry-picking who can cover him, Trump is restricting access to the White House to only those willing to stoop to his demands, Sugars said.

“It’s alarming when you see all of these things in conjunction with each other and just how effectively this administration is taking steps to ensure that the only message that is getting out is one that they approve of,” she said.

The consequences are grave, including less-experienced journalists in the press room and fewer outlets reporting on the administration with the required scrutiny, Karem said. That enables Trump to hide more from the American public, which is therefore less equipped to hold him accountable.

“Donald Trump is asking, ‘Who are you with? What company are you with?’ because he wants to know so he can come back and say, ‘Oh, I like you.’” Karem said. “He has turned himself into a dictator with sycophants asking him questions.”

Trump’s effort to exert control over the press extends to major networks, too, Sugars said. Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has opened investigations into outlets including NPR, PBS, CBS, ABC, and NBC, and the Trump administration recently gutted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America.

“It’s been a bit of an onslaught and coming from a lot of different angles, from within the White House, the Trump administration, and his allies more generally in Congress,” Sugars said.

While Trump is the most vocal anti-press president in recent memory, Karem said he isn’t the first to retaliate against journalists and their sources. He noted that Barack Obama used the Espionage Act nearly a dozen times to target whistleblowers.

“I have covered every president since Ronald Reagan. Every one of them has been complicit and guilty about destroying the First Amendment, free speech, and destroying our ability to use confidential sources,” Karem said. “Donald Trump is merely a symptom of the problem.”

Restriction and intimidation aren’t excuses for the press to throw in the towel. Karem said that newsrooms must find other ways to retrieve vetted factual information, which he described as “the coin of the realm.”

If they can’t access a press briefing or pool reporting seat, reporters can still focus on sourcing, building deeper relationships with those on their beats, and gathering information from people and places where restrictions don’t apply, Karem said.

“You’ve got to stand up to a bully,” he added. “There is nothing that is more antithetical to the idea of free press, free speech, and speaking truth to power than the moves that Donald Trump has made in his second administration.”

The Republican governor told reporters Tuesday he had an hour-long meeting with St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy in the governor's office "working through different issues."

The narrative during Trump’s first term is that he was going after the “worst of the worst” undocumented immigrants. But ICE and other DHS components ran out of actual dangerous criminals pretty quickly, largely because immigrants tend to be more law-abiding than regular US citizens. Trump’s return to office came coupled with promises to deport […]

WHITE HALL – A sex offender from White Hall faces a felony after failing to register his new Jersey County address with authorities. Louis W. Hill, 59, of White Hall, was charged on April 16, 2025 with unlawful failure to register as a sex offender, a Class 3 felony. On April 12, 2025, Hill allegedly failed to register with the Jersey County Sheriff’s Department within three days of establishing a residence within Jersey County, as legally required under the Child Sex Offender Registration Act. Hill was granted pretrial release from custody and was issued a notice to appear at the Jersey County Courthouse on April 29, 2025. All individuals charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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From First Alert4:  Editor’s Note: Ness Sandoval, a demographer and SLU professor has been studying the impact of international immigration in slowing the STL Region’s population drain. This video from KMOV expresses his views. This is a link to his PowerPoint presentation to The Mosaic Project on this topic. Watch video here.  

LabsDigest is built for those who learn best by doing. Whether you’re preparing for a CompTIA certification or diving into Python development, our platform offers interactive labs that simulate real-world tasks—no passive watching or reading, just real experience. Work through performance-based exercises for CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and more, or sharpen your coding skills with […]

The St. Louis native comedian Nikki Glaser is making a return to the Gateway City this fall as part of her "Alive and Unwell Tour."

The beloved actor, known for roles in "Say Anything," "Eight Men Out," "Grosse Pointe Blank," and "Being John Malkovich," is touring the country and screening "High Fidelity" on the film's 25th anniversary.

Billy Idol has shared another preview of his upcoming album, Dream Into It, which comes out Friday.The latest is the track "77," featuring special guest Avril Lavigne, who wrote on…

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COTTAGE HILLS – A man from Cottage Hills faces multiple felonies after stealing over $10,000 through a wire fraud scheme for more than two years. Adam J. Lucas, 35, of Cottage Hills, was charged on April 17, 2025 with two counts of theft (both Class 2 felonies) and one count of wire fraud (a Class 3 felony). From March 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024, Lucas allegedly committed a “series of acts” which allowed him to steal over $10,000 from the victim, which was knowingly “obtained by deception.” The charge of wire fraud states Lucas “knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme … to obtain money and property by means of false pretenses,” causing the victim to send money from within the State of Illinois via wire in furtherance of the scheme. Lucas was arrested by the Pontoon Beach Police Department and has been granted pretrial release from custody. All individuals charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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OVERLAND, Mo.—UPDATE: The Overland Police Department announced that the child has been found and is safe.

The St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners on Tuesday announced that the special election for the Ward 8 aldermanic seat will be held on July 1.

“We take this very seriously,” said new St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer. “And we take the fears of our residents seriously.”

Editor’s Note: The video accompanying this article demonstrates the difference that a collaborative process made on an elementary school expansion project. Holland Construction Services has completed their addition and renovation of W.J. Zahnow Elementary in Waterloo, IL. Holland added 15,000 SF of space to the existing facility, which provides new staff offices and student spaces […]

Last fall, St. Louis attorney Brad Ketcher read the news that a Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate was using money from his church to help fund his campaign. As the chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in the 1990s, Ketcher helped establish the Missouri Ethics Commission, a state agency that enforces […]

Last fall, St. Louis attorney Brad Ketcher read the news that a Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate was using money from his church to help fund his campaign. As the chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in the 1990s, Ketcher helped establish the Missouri Ethics Commission, a state agency that enforces […]