From The Deckplates

“There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe,” Mark Twain wrote, “the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press [AP] down here.”¹ AP photographer Joe Rosenthal won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for an image he captured that February: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.² AP photographer Evan Vucci was there when Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally. Vucci captured the images of Donald Trump raising his fist as secret service rushed him from stage.³

When the Associated Press broke the story, I remember dismaying “that picture just won him the presidency.” Now that Trump is the President, he has banned these same reporters from the Oval Office.⁴ This came after executive orders to rename Denali, America’s tallest mountain, and the Gulf of Mexico.⁵ Although the AP faithfully reported on the executive orders,⁶ the news agency had to make an editorial choice whether to use the new names in future reporting. The AP accepted Trump’s name change for Denali because:

“The area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.”⁷

However:

“The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”⁸

This enraged Trump, so he banned the AP from the Oval Office. The AP’s Executive Editor Julie Pace issued a statement:

“As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism.

“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”⁹

Pace elaborated in a letter to the White House. “The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech.” “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.”¹⁰

Trump has snuffed America’s light. Other news agencies agreed, but the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration. “It is a privilege to cover this White House,” she said, “And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America. And I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that.”¹¹

There is no purer journalism than what you’ll read in the Associated Press. The AP’s editorial stance only reflects that the “Gulf of America” is not a fact anywhere else in the world. Cronies like Leavitt came up with “alternative facts” because the real facts are not flattering to Trump’s administration. When history happens, the AP is always there to report on it. From wars to assassination attempts, from elections to executive orders, the AP is always there. Its stories shed light on every corner of the globe. This will not stop just because Trump chooses to hide in the dark.

1. Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain (University of California Press, 2013), 274, retrieved from AZ Quotes, February 17, 2025. ↩︎
2. Adam Bernstein, “Joe Rosenthal; Shot Flag-Raising at Iwo Jima,” The Washington Post, August 22, 2006. ↩︎
3. Helen Sullivan, “‘The job is all about anticipation’: behind the lens of the defining photo of the Trump rally shooting,” The Guardian, July 15, 2024. ↩︎
4. David Bauder, “White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on ‘Gulf of America’,” AP, February 12, 2025. ↩︎
5. White House, “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” news release, January 20, 2025. ↩︎
6. Becky Bohrer, “Trump order seeks to change the name of North America’s tallest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley,” AP, January 20, 2025; Laurie Kellman and Hillel Italie, “Gulf of Whatnow? Trump’s geographic renaming plans leave mapmakers pondering what to do next,” AP, January 23, 2025. ↩︎
7. Amanda Barrett, “AP style guidance on Gulf of Mexico, Mount McKinley,” AP, January 23, 2025. ↩︎
8. Ibid. ↩︎
9. Lauren Easton, “AP statement on Oval Office access,” AP, February 11, 2025. ↩︎
10. Quoted in David Folkenflik, “White House defends blocking AP from event for using ‘Gulf of Mexico’,” NPR, February 12, 2025. ↩︎
11. Quoted in ibid. ↩︎