[Source: AP]

President Donald Trump said that he will continue to restrict The Associated Press’ access to his events and news conferences until the news outlet goes along with his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.

He acknowledged that the move was a presidential retaliation against the news agency’s editorial policy.

“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said, speaking to reporters who witnessed the signing of an executive order at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate. “We’re very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America.”

It was the first time the president himself had commented on the issue since the White House began not allowing AP to cover several of his events last week. Two journalists from AP were denied entrance to Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday; they watched a live television feed of Trump’s remarks and were unable to ask questions.

Shortly after taking office, Trump renamed the international body of water, which borders the United States, Mexico and other countries and has been named the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years. The AP, whose influential Stylebook is the arbiter for editorial choices at thousands of news outlets and other editorial operations, said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico and note Trump’s decision, to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world.

“The Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is,” Trump said, an apparent reference to his executive order renaming the Gulf. No law prevents the AP from choosing the style it deems fit.

AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said Tuesday that “this is about the government telling the public and press what words to use and retaliating if they do not follow government orders. The White House has restricted AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a location.”