Donald Trump has been hammered by critics after his media ban backfired spectacularly on Monday, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the White House being broadcast to the world without any audio.
Trump was unveiling his new granite helipad on the South Lawn surrounded by construction workers. The pad, estimated to cost $6 million, was built for the powerful new Marine One helicopter which has caused scorching on the lawn.
But the absence of the television press pool – which includes Fox, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC – meant that there was an eerie silence when Trump began speaking with the White House’s own cameras not delivering audio.
The networks announced earlier Monday that they were suspending coverage of White House events after the Trump administration barred journalists from three outlets including CNN over the weekend over coverage branded ‘fake news.’
The White House livestream was broadcast on Trump-friendly Newsmax which cut to footage of the president speaking outside the White House but none of his comments were audible.
‘Okay, there is no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,’ the anchor told viewers. ‘So maybe this is one example of this backfiring just a little bit … the ramifications are right here – can’t hear what the president is saying.’
The president was widely mocked as the pictures went viral on social media.Â
Veteran Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree wrote: ‘Here is what happens when you don’t have the White House TV Pool. You have video of Trump – but you can’t hear what the President is saying.’Â
Donald Trump participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new White House helipad on the South Lawn before boarding the new Marine One on Monday
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the US Open earlier this month
Another X user posted: ‘He wants to be a dictator so bad he banned the press without realizing it would silence his own voice!’
Trump faced a backlash from journalists on Monday as CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration after their reporters were turned away at the White House gates over the weekend.Â
‘This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,’ lawyers for the outlets wrote in a 27-page complaint.Â
The crisis deepened hours later when the major TV networks said that they will boycott the president in solidarity with their colleagues.
Fox News Washington Bureau Chief and current TV pool chair Bryan Boughton wrote in an email to TV pool subscribers: ‘This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.Â
‘This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.’
The timing could not be worse for the cable news aficionado president who this week kicks off a diplomatic whirlwind, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York before jetting back to Washington to welcome China’s president Xi Jinping.
