Donald Trump’s often contentious relationship with the press seems likely to become heightened in his second term of office. Multiple news organizations were denied credentials to Trump’s election night watch event—and some reportedly saw their access revoked.
The lack of access was in retaliation for the outlets’ coverage of the Trump campaign, according to CNN. Politico reporters, who had been granted access, were disinvited—and representatives of Axios, Puck, Mother Jones, and Voice of America were denied credentials.
Politico did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment about the event.
Puck reporter Tara Palmeri was planning to broadcast from the Palm Beach event as part of Amazon’s election coverage with Brian Williams, but her credential was denied after she posted a story about “anxiety” in the Trump campaign.
“I know I told you that I would be covering the Trump election night party from Palm Beach but turns out I have pissed off Trump’s campaign manager with my reporting and they decided to deny my credentials,” Palmeri said on the podcast “Somebody’s Gotta Win.”
Last week, Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita, in a post on Twitter/X, said Palmeri “was DENIED credentials to enter Mar-a-largo [sic] to cover election night due to her ‘proclivity’ to write bullshit. well well well.”
Trump has threatened to use the office of the presidency to exact retribution on people he considers his enemies in his second term. And earlier this month, he talked about reporters being shot, referring to the ballistic glass that surrounds him at events and saying “I have this piece of glass here, but all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
In 2019, Trump was sued by PEN America, an organization that represents writers and literary professionals, over his anti-media tirades, citing a number of instances, including one where a White House correspondent was barred from a press event after Trump threatened to remove press credentials for reporters who criticized him.
