US President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to remove Wall Street Journal (WSJ) from one of the coveted press seats from the president’s upcoming trip to Scotland as the administration banished one of the WSJ reporters from Air Force One over an article published in the newspaper on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes were made “due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct.” Leavitt added “As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces.”
The US president has sued WSJ and its owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion in a defamation case over the July 17 article, wherein the WSJ had alleged that Trump had sent a letter to Epstein on his 50th birthday in 2003, which included sexually suggestive images.
It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.
Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003… pic.twitter.com/RKQKJwWnsz
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 18, 2025
The Journal’s reporter Tarini Parti was supposed to cover President Trump’s visit to Scotland but was kicked out of Air Force One after the White House barred the newspaper from the press pool traveling with the president. Parti was not one of the authors of the Epstein article.
Trump is headed to Scotland to work on the US-UK trade deals and visit his golf courses in the country.
Until February, the press pool assignments were decided by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) which is an independent group that represents press corps. But White House Press Secretary Leavitt cut the group and took control of the pool, giving the Trump administration a new form of leverage.
The administration had initially banned news outlet Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other exclusive access after the news agency declined to recognize Trump’s new name ‘Gulf of America’ for ‘Gulf of Mexico’.
