Australia hosts tennis make-up sesh between Trump administration and CNN

Washington: Whatever ill will might exist between CNN and the Trump administration – and there is plenty – it was cast aside at the Australian embassy on Sunday (Washington time) for the annual Kangaroo Cup tennis tournament.

Right in the middle of the most significant feud between Donald Trump and the media in this presidential term, CNN hosted and sponsored one of the marquee schmoozing events on Australian ambassador Greg Moriarty’s calendar.

The tournament takes place at the ambassador’s residence, which happens to boast the only grass court in all of Washington, DC. For tennis fiends in the US capital, it’s a rather sought-after place to play.

The contest pitted Trump loyalists – assistant White House press secretary Olivia Wales nearly played her way into the finals – against what the administration considers some of the worst “fake news” offenders from CNN (Kit Maher) and The New York Times (Erik Wemple, Ann Marimow).

There were no obvious grudges held, although CNN’s charismatic Washington bureau chief, David Chalian, did not let the irony of the moment go unnoticed.

“It’s always a good thing when a free and independent press can get across from members of the administration and sort out their differences,” he said pointedly during the opening remarks.

CNN was not allowed to cover a Trump trip to Tennessee aboard Air Force One on Saturday, despite the White House claiming to have lifted a ban on the network in line with a court order that found the president’s unprecedented media ban was likely unconstitutional.

And yet, the other major TV networks relinquished their solidarity boycott, seemingly content that, at the very least, CNN had been readmitted to the White House grounds.

The Australian embassy was not going to take a side in this dispute. The tournament went on despite Trump’s blatant abrogation of press freedom, and despite the rain that accompanied an early fall north-easterly storm.

Ultimately, the administration was victorious – the dynamic duo of White House advancer Colin Gramley and JD Vance staffer Michelle Martinkov won the cup, despite a stellar media side including Semafor’s Shelby Talcott (a former WTA tennis professional), Gray Television’s Jon Decker and Axios reporter Hans Nichols. CNN chief congressional reporter Manu Raju was also among those cheering from the bleachers.

Gramley donned a “Make America Great Again” cap for the photo shoot, perhaps making things slightly awkward for Moriarty, who had to stand next to him.

Also on the administration’s team: Rachel Holt, the wife of deputy national security adviser Mike Needham (who attended), James Bacon from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s office, counterterrorism co-ordinator Greg LoGerfo, and Michael Geremia, a special assistant to the president on the National Security Council.

The only slight disappointment was that Moriarty declined to uphold former ambassador Kevin Rudd’s tradition of umpiring the final.

He left that to the ambassador’s communications chief (and tennis expert) Ian Gerard, ably assisted by colleague Oliver Duchesne.

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