AFP, Washington

A US federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore the Associated Press’s access to President Donald Trump’s official events, saying it had no right to bar media for their “viewpoints.”

AP journalists and photographers have been barred from the Oval Office and from traveling on Air Force One since mid-February because of the news agency’s decision to continue referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” -- and not the “Gulf of America” as decreed by Trump.

District Judge Trevor McFadden said the “viewpoint-based denial of the AP’s access” was a violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

He ordered the White House to “immediately rescind the denial of the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other limited spaces... when such spaces are made open to other members of the White House press pool.”