Fresh from a courtroom loss over The Associated Press’ access to the presidency, the White House on Tuesday put forward a new media policy that sharply curtails access to Donald Trump by news agencies that serve media outlets around the world. It was the latest attempt by the new administration to control coverage of its activities.

The move would block the AP and other wire services that serve billions of readers through thousands of news outlets. It comes after a judge ruled the White House had violated the organization’s free speech by banning it because it disagreed with the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

While outlining a new “pool coverage” policy for small spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, the White House also said it will ultimately give press secretary Karoline Leavitt the final say over who gets to question her boss, according to people who have seen the plan.

The White House did not return messages for comment on Tuesday evening.

A federal judge last week ruled the White House improperly punished the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico by blocking its reporters and photographers from covering the events. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered the administration to treat the AP as it does other news organizations.

A day after defying McFadden’s ruling and continuing AP’s ban when Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele met with reporters in the Oval Office, the White House leaked a new policy to selected journalists.

For many years, the White House Correspondents Association has run the pool for the limited space events, and each time it has included reporters from the wire services AP, Reuters and Bloomberg. One print reporter was also allowed, selected on a rotating basis from more than 30 news outlets.

The White House now says it will lump the three wire services with print reporters for two slots — meaning roughly three dozen reporters will rotate for two regular slots. Wire services typically report and write stories that are used in multiple locations around the country and the planet.

Even with the rotation, the White House said Trump’s press secretary “shall retain day-to-day discretion to determine composition of the pool.” The new policy says reporters will also be allowed in “irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.”

In a statement, the AP’s Lauren Easton said the outlet was deeply disappointed that rather than restore the AP’s access, the White House instead chose restrictions over all of the wire services.

“The wire services represent thousands of news organizations across the U.S. and the world over,” said Easton, an AP spokeswoman. “Our coverage is used by local newspapers and television stations in all 50 states to inform their communities.

“The administration’s actions continue to disregard the fundamental American freedom to speak without government control or retaliation,” Easton said Tuesday night.

The independent White House Correspondents’ Association said the administration’s insistence on retaining control over who covers the president shows that it is unwilling to guarantee that it would not continue “viewpoint discrimination.”

“The government should not be able to control the independent media that covers it,” said Eugene Daniels, the association’s president.

Under Leavitt, the White House has given greater access to news outlets friendly to Trump. That was visible Tuesday, when the first reporter Leavitt addressed during a briefing asked two questions while also praising Trump policy.

At Monday’s Oval Office meeting, Trump bristled at questions from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about a man deported to an El Salvador prison, at one point accusing CNN of “hating our country.” He made it a point to contrast her questions with a non-pointed one from another reporter.

Despite the occasional fireworks, Trump has made himself accessible to the media more than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Cramped-quarters events, particularly in the Oval Office, are some of his favorite places to talk — rendering the new access policy all the more impactful.

The new policy advanced on Tuesday did not address access for photographers. At an earlier court hearing about the AP’s case, the outlet’s chief White House photographer, Evan Vucci, and correspondent Zeke Miller testified about how the ban has hurt the business of a news agency built to quickly get news and images to its customers.

The dispute stems from AP’s decision not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico, although AP style does cite Trump’s wish that it be called the Gulf of America. McFadden agreed with AP’s argument that the government cannot punish the news organization for what it says — for exercising its right to free speech.

The White House has argued that press access to the president is a privilege, not a right, that it should control — much like it decides to whom Trump gives one-on-one interviews. In court papers filed last weekend, his lawyers signaled that even with McFadden’s decision, the AP’s days of unchallenged access to open presidential events were over.

“No other news organization in the United States receives the level of guaranteed access previously bestowed upon the AP,” the administration argued. “The AP may have grown accustomed to its favored status, but the Constitution does not require that such status endure in perpetuity.”

The administration has appealed McFadden’s ruling, and is scheduled to be in an appeals court on Thursday to argue that ruling should be put on hold until the merits of the case are fully decided, perhaps by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The administration has not curtailed AP access to Leavitt’s briefings over the past two months. It has blocked access to events in the East Room to White House-credentialed AP reporters — until Tuesday, when one was allowed into an event that involved the Navy football team.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

WASHINGTON — U.S. wholesale prices fell last month in another sign that inflationary pressures are easing. But President Donald Trump’s trade wars cloud the outlook.

The Labor Department said Friday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — fell 0.4% from February, first drop since October 2023. Compared with a year earlier, producer prices rose 2.7%, down from a 3.2% year-over-year gain in February and much lower than the 3.3% economists had forecast. Gasoline prices fell 11.1% from February and egg prices, which had skyrocketed because of bird flu, plummeted 21.3%.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation fell 0.1% from February, the first drop since July. Compared to a year earlier, core producer prices were up 3.3% and lower than economists had forecast.

The report comes a day after the Labor Department delivered good news on inflation at the consumer level. Its consumer price index rose just 2.4% last month from March 2024, the smallest year-over-year gain since September. Core consumer prices posted the smallest year-over-year increase in nearly four years.

The inflation outlook is muddied by Trump’s trade wars. He’s imposing a 145% tax — a tariff — on Chinese imports and is hitting most of the rest of the world’s imports with a 10% levy that might go up after 90 days.

The trade barriers are widely expected to raise prices as importers attempt to pass along their higher costs.

Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar to a pair of private equity firms for $1 billion after a decade trying to make its acquisition of the bargain chain fit.

Dollar Tree Inc. acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General, but struggled to make it fit.

Last year Dollar Tree announced that it planned to close hundreds of Family Dollar stores. The company also said at the time that it would record a $950 million impairment against the trade name Family Dollar, on top of a $1.07 billion goodwill charge.

The company had been scouting options for Family Dollar for a while and it said Wednesday that the sale to Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management will allow it to focus on its core business.

“This is a major milestone in our multi-year transformation journey to help us fully achieve our potential,” said Mike Creedon, who was made permanent chief executive officer of Dollar Tree late last year.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said that after acquiring the rival chain, Dollar Tree struggled with supply chain issues, poor store locations and other operational difficulties.

“Basically, Dollar Tree bit off far more than it could chew,” he said.

But Dollar Tree had little room to maneuver, particularly in the months leading up to the sale. Americans have been tightened their spending, even at bargain chains, as consumer confidence in the economy slides.

Adding to the difficulties, bargain stores like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have been dealing with consumers tightening their spending as they watch prices escalate.

Family Dollar, which moved its headquarters from North Carolina to Chesapeake, Virginia, after the sale, will maintain its headquarters in Virginia.

“This transaction presented a unique opportunity to play a key role in reinvigorating an iconic business,” Jonathan Duskin, CEO and Partner of Macellum, said.

The deal is expected to close later in the second quarter.

Shares of Dollar Tree rose 4% before the opening bell.

US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after a sharp pullback the previous month, signaling that Americans are shopping more cautiously as concerns about the direction of the economy mount

WASHINGTON — US shoppers stepped up their spending a just bit in February after a sharp pullback the previous month, signaling that Americans are spending more cautiously as concerns about the direction of the economy mount.

Retail sales rose just 0.2% in February, a small rebound after a sharp drop of 1.2% in January, the Commerce Department said Monday. Sales rose at grocery stores, home and garden stores, and online retailers. Sales fell at auto dealers, restaurants, and electronics stores.

The small increase suggests Americans may be growing more wary about spending as the stock market has plunged and President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and government spending cuts have led to widespread uncertainty among consumers and businesses.

On Friday, a measure of consumer sentiment fell sharply for the third straight month and is now down more than 20% since December. Respondents to the University of Michigan’s survey cited policy uncertainty as a leading reason for the gloomier outlook. While the respondents were divided sharply by party — sentiment about the current economy fell among Republican by much less than for Democrats — Republicans’ confidence in the economy’s future dropped 10%.

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D’Innocenzio reported from New York.

Forever 21 has filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time as traffic in U.S. shopping malls fades and competition from online retailers like Amazon, Temu and Shein intensifies.

F21 OpCo, which runs Forever 21 stores, said late Sunday that it will wind down the business in the U.S. under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while determining if it can continue as a business with a partner, or if it will sell some or all of its assets.

“While we have evaluated all options to best position the company for the future, we have been unable to find a sustainable path forward, given competition from foreign fast fashion companies, which have been able to take advantage of the de minimis exemption to undercut our brand on pricing and margin,” Chief Financial Officer Brad Sell said in a statement.

The de minimis tax exemption lets shipments headed to U.S. businesses and consumers valued at less than $800 to enter the country tax free and duty free.

Forever 21 stores in the U.S. will hold liquidation sales and the website will continue to run while operations wind down. The retailer’s locations outside of the U.S. are run by other licensees and are not included in the bankruptcy filing. International store locations and websites will continue operating as normal.

Authentic Brands Group owns the international intellectual property associated with the Forever 21 brand and may license the brand to other operators, F21OpCo said.

Forever 21 first filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019. It was acquired by a consortium of parties including Authentic Brands Group and mall owners Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners.

Forever 21 was founded in 1984 and, along with other fast-fashion chains like H&M and Zara, rode a wave of popularity among young customers in the mid-1990s. Their popularity grew during the Great Recession, when shoppers were seeking bargains. But Forever 21 went on an aggressive expansion just as shoppers were moving more online.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that part of the problem now is that Forever 21’s stores are too big for its current needs and it’s in malls with not enough foot traffic.

“Forever 21 was always a retailer living on borrowed time. Over recent years it has been hit with dual headwinds from a weak apparel market and stiff competition from cheap Chinese marketplaces,” he said. “Both things have eroded its standing and depleted its market share.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence plummeted in February, the biggest monthly decline in more than four years, a business research group said Tuesday, with inflation seemingly stuck and a trade war under President Donald Trump seen by a growing number of Americans as inevitable.

The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index sank this month to 98.3 from 105.3 in January. That’s far below the expectations of economists, who projected a reading of 103, according to a survey by FactSet.

The seven-point drop was the biggest month-to-month decline since August of 2021.

Markets on Wall Street immediately drooped. The S&P 500 fell 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.7%. The Nasdaq declined 1.4%.

Respondents to the board’s survey expressed concern over inflation with a significant increase in mentions of trade and tariffs, the board said.

The Conference Board’s report Tuesday said that the measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for income, business and the job market fell 9.3 points to 72.9. The Conference Board says a reading under 80 can signal a potential recession in the near future.

The proportion of consumers expecting a recession over the next year jumped to a nine-month high, the board said.

Consumers’ view of current conditions tumbled 3.4 points to a reading of 136.5 this month and views on current labor market conditions fell again.

“Views of current labor market conditions weakened,” the group said Tuesday. “Consumers became pessimistic about future business conditions and less optimistic about future income. Pessimism about future employment prospects worsened and reached a ten-month high.”

Consumers appeared increasingly confident heading into the end of 2024 and spent generously during the holiday season. However, U.S. retail sales dropped sharply in January, with cold weather taking some of the blame for a dent in vehicle sales at at retail stores.

Retail sales fell 0.9% last month from December, the Commerce Department reported last week. The decline, the biggest in a year, came after two months of healthy gains.

The consumer confidence index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and is closely watched by economists for signs about how the American consumer is feeling.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles sports organizations are uniting to launch an “LA Strong” custom logo and apparel line that will raise money for organizations assisting those impacted by this week’s devasting wildfires.

Fanatics announced Friday that T-shirts featuring the new logo will be available to purchase on team and league online stores, as well as the Fanatics website. The collaboration spans seven leagues, the University of Southern California and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee.

The sports organizations and Fanatics will donate all proceeds from the initiative to the American Red Cross and Los Angles Fire Department Foundation. LA Strong hoodies will also be available in the coming weeks.

“What’s happening is absolutely gut-wrenching and it’s our duty to use our platform in any way we can,” said Fanatics founder Michael Rubin in a statement. He said he was heartbroken to watch the “horror continue to unfold across Los Angeles and completely upend so many lives.

“We are proud to have teamed up with the LA sports community to launch a new ‘LA Strong’ merchandise collection,” he said.

Wind-whipped fires tore across Los Angeles, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled as the fires burned uncontained Wednesday.

The pro teams partnering together on the initiative include the Los Angeles Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, Chargers, Clippers, Sparks, Angels, Kings, Football Club, Galaxy, Golf Club (TGL), Angel City FC and Anaheim Ducks.

The leagues span from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Women’s National Basketball Association and TMRW Golf League.