Trump campaign chairman Brad Parscale announced Monday that they will not be offering press credentials to any reporters of Bloomberg News seeking to cover the Trump campaign.

The surprising action came following a recent internal memo to Bloomberg staff in which Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait announced that the outlet would continue its “tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries.”

The press release reads:

The decision by Bloomberg News to formalize preferential reporting policies is troubling and wrong. Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office, but will continue critical reporting on President Trump. As President Trump’s campaign, we are accustomed to unfair reporting practices, but most news organizations don’t announce their biases so publicly. Presented with this new policy from Bloomberg News, our campaign was forced to determine how to proceed. Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump Campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events. We will determine whether to engage with individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News on a case-by-case basis. This will remain the policy of the Trump campaign until Bloomberg News publicly rescinds its decision.

Minutes after the Trump campaign made this announcement, Bloomberg News released the following statement from EIC Micklethwait:

“The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

For those woefully under-informed about the intersecting world of media and politics, Bloomberg News is the media organization of the billionaire former New York City Mayor and current presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg.

President Donald Trump also claims to be a billionaire, and before entering the world of politics, he was a New York-based media figure as host of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice — though he has no newsgathering operation that he directly oversees.

The reaction on Twitter has gone about as one might expect, a selection of which are collected below for your reading pleasure:

Media outlets should be independent and fair, and this decision proves that Bloomberg News is neither. The @GOP stands with @TeamTrump and will no longer credential Bloomberg representatives. https://t.co/nxWiBbEI0s — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) December 2, 2019

President Trump’s 2020 campaign announced Monday it will no longer allow reporters from Bloomberg News to obtain credentials to cover Trump campaign events. https://t.co/SwmZpZ2brg — Jodi Xu Klein (@jodixu) December 2, 2019

Well. Okay. Bloomberg is among the three wires that travel to ALL Trump events, including rallies, as part of the travel pool. Is the campaign saying they’re going to make them sit outside?@whca? pic.twitter.com/xW3dGZVwnb — S.V. Dáte (@svdate) December 2, 2019

Bloomberg had been considering a run for at least 12 years and it’s not clear that he had a plan for this stuff. https://t.co/2NVBspmNNt — Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 2, 2019

What a bunch. Bloomberg News could not have been more transparent. Trump campaign to blacklist Bloomberg News https://t.co/CDujla1jKo — PeterBale (@PeterBale) December 2, 2019

China’s puppet Mike Bloomberg thinks he can buy everything and everyone. He can’t. Trump Campaign Announces It ‘Will No Longer Credential’ Bloomberg News Reportershttps://t.co/BYB2w4EZmE — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) December 2, 2019

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