Americanswers… Why has Denmark made a deal with Trump over Greenland?

Sarah Smith (0:00)

Can Donald Trump ban journalists he doesn't like from covering him in the White House, and what are other media outlets going to do in response to his attempt to do so? He's announced a new security compact with Denmark and Greenland, but is it any different from what the existing arrangements were before he announced that he wanted to buy Greenland?

And why does he want to put snipers on top of the huge, triumphal arch that he's building in Washington, DC? Well, those are just some of your questions. There are more as well that we're going to attempt to answer. Welcome to Americast.

Marianna Spring (0:34)

Americast. Americast from BBC News.

SPEAKER_3 (0:37)

Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth because she's way out of your league.

SPEAKER_4 (0:43)

The tide is coming. And this time we intend to win it all.

SPEAKER_5 (0:49)

See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.

SPEAKER_6 (1:01)

When I'm not around, you're going to be broke. There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.

Sarah Smith (1:14)

Hello, it's Sarah. In New York, we're the UN General Assembly's meeting this week.

Marianna Spring (1:18)

And it is Marianna in London.

Anthony Zurcher (1:20)

And it's Anthony at my home in Arlington, Virginia.

Marianna Spring (1:22)

Now, I didn't want to say I was in the worldwide headquarters of Americast because I'm in a different studio today in London, and that would have been fake news. And on the topic of fake news, that is one of the things that we're going to be talking about today because we've had some questions about it, specifically about the accusations Donald Trump makes about the media being fake news. Tricia in London has emailed us saying, Can Trump block press access to the White House? It seems to me this has happened before in the early days of his second term, and the Supreme Court didn't stop it. Something along the lines of the White House can invite whom they like. And then also Richard in Fife has said, Why don't all reporting outlets in the US get together and just don't turn up to DT conferences in force? Now this is about this ban, isn't it, Sarah?

CNN and others who have now been excluded from attending the White House and being part of the pool.

Sarah Smith (2:11)

Yeah, Marianna, all of a sudden on Friday afternoon, Donald Trump posted on social media that he was banning certain media outlets from the White House, and they were CNN, MS Now and Politico.

He didn't give any specific reason, except claiming that they all report fake news and that they're deliberately mean to him, that they don't report his achievements accurately, that they're always being particularly critical. And it wasn't immediately clear what he meant by banning them from the White House, but he was asked about it by reporters in the Oval Office just a few minutes after he'd posted that online.

SPEAKER_8 (2:47)

Earlier today, you posted that you intend to ban CNN, Politico, and MS Now from the White House. Every president takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes the First Amendment.

SPEAKER_6 (2:59)

How do you justify this? Much more so than you.

Because they're fake news. You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news.

When you look at CNN, it's just fake. That's why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS Now, which used to be MSNBC, which some people call MSDNC, Democratic National Committee, it's fake news. Many, many, look at this story today about favored nations on drugs. We lowered the drug causes by 50, 60, 70 percent. They won't even put it, if they put it on, it'll be a leg... They will find a reason why that's a negative, okay? Yeah.

SPEAKER_9 (3:44)

Why are you doing this ban now?

SPEAKER_8 (3:46)

Is there a particular reason?

SPEAKER_6 (3:47)

No, no reason now, just because... No, no, it's really just cumulative stories over the last few years. You get sick of it.

Sarah Smith (3:57)

And here's the CNN White House reporter Betsy Klein on trying to get into the White House on Saturday.

SPEAKER_10 (4:03)

So I walk in, I tap my badge, and it beeps a couple of different times. It turns red, blue and green, and it didn't accept my PIN number. The Secret Service agent in the guard house, with whom I have been friendly in the past, asked to see my badge, and I handed it over to him. He told me that it had been deactivated.