The White House has suspended the credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta, hours after his testy exchange with President Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House.

“I’ve just been denied entrance to the White House. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the White House grounds for my 8pm hit,” Acosta tweeted on Wednesday night.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed that Acosta’s credentials have been suspended.

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern,” she tweeted.

“This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history,” continued Sanders.

“Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration,” she added.

“As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.”

“This is a lie,” tweeted Acosta in response to Sanders’ assertion that he placed his hands on a White House intern who was trying to remove his microphone as he continued to ask Trump questions.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Acosta questioned Trump about his characterization of a migrant caravan making its way to the US border from Mexico as “an invasion.”

When Acosta continued to press Trump, despite Trump’s demand that he "put down the mic," a White House official finally took the microphone away from him.

Trump then scolded Acosta, calling him a “rude, terrible person" and adding, “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you work for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”

Trump has been a vocal critic of much of the mainstream media, and particularly of CNN.

Shortly after Trump was elected president, he and Acosta got into a shouting match similar to that which occurred on Wednesday, when Acosta insisted on asking Trump a question after Trump dismissed a CNN report on Russian hackers having sensitive information about him.

Acosta kept insisting on asking his question, and Trump told him, “Don’t be rude”, before concluding with, “You are fake news.”