President Trump’s statement contradicts President Hegseth’s orders to reporters at the Pentagon.
US President Donald Trump appears to be flouting Pentagon regulations aimed at restricting journalists’ coverage of US military activities.
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A federal judge on June 30 blocked the Pentagon from enforcing a policy that requires journalists to be escorted on premises at all times.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in the opinion that the Founding Fathers “believed that the nation’s security required a free press and an informed public, and that such security was endangered by government suppression of political speech.”
“As our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary this week, we must not abandon our principles now,” he wrote.
The legal battle began when the Pentagon implemented a media policy in October 2025 that said journalists who “requested” information not authorized for release could lose media access to the building.
Experts told USA TODAY at the time that the policy called into question the First Amendment, but ultimately a court would have to decide whether the policy was unconstitutional.
The New York Times first filed a lawsuit over the issue in December. Mr. Friedman blocked the Pentagon from implementing the policy in March, prompting the Army Corps, officially the Pentagon, to develop an interim policy that would close work spaces where journalists have worked for years and require reporters to pass through buildings.
“New and improved press workspace will be located in a new building on Pentagon property and will be available for use as soon as it is ready,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said at the time. Press freedom groups denounced the policy update and accused the Pentagon of violating the judge’s order.
Friedman agreed with the April 9 ruling, saying the Pentagon “used slightly different language to achieve the same unconstitutional result.”
The New York Times filed a second lawsuit in May, arguing that the escort requirement is “unreasonable because it imposes a significant burden on journalists” and “completely unnecessary given the long history and tradition of unaccompanied press access.”
Friedman wrote in a June 30 opinion that the New York Times is likely to succeed in arguing that the escort mandate violates the First Amendment, partly in a retaliatory sense.
He said public statements by Pentagon officials about mainstream news outlets, including comments from Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom he called “Trump-hating traditional media” and Biblical “Pharisees,” were “strong evidence of the Pentagon’s retaliatory motives” in implementing the policy.
Parnell said the Pentagon will appeal the decision in a June 30 X post.
“Unescorted access to the Pentagon allowed journalists to observe patterns of activity and develop relationships that led to repeated unauthorized disclosures of operational plans and information,” he said. “At a time when protecting military secrets is more important than ever, the court’s order effectively restores that dangerous environment.”
New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said Friedman’s order “reaffirms the First Amendment right of news organizations to report on the Pentagon without restrictions to keep the public from knowing what the military is doing.”
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
