Amid the ongoing legal battle between media outlets and President Donald Trump over the president’s attempted press ban, one journalist is detailing how he learned of his fate. White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg reveals in a piece for The Independent that he will not be covering Donald Trump’s Sioux City rally on October 22, taking the ban as a personal attack because of the way he was booted from Air Force One.
In a detailed account, Feinberg writes that he was scheduled to board a short late-afternoon flight to Sioux City, Iowa to cover the upcoming rally. The Independent was initially scheduled to be in the “print pool” seat aboard Air Force One, part of the 13-member traveling press pool that follows the president any time Trump leaves Washington. But after sending an email to a White House aide to verify that he was on the list for the trip, the aide’s brief response said otherwise. On October 21, he says he received an unsigned email from the press office officially informing him that he had been removed from the trip.
The email was vague and void of an explanation. Feinberg believes being uninvited is retaliation for his reporting from the Oval Office on October 20, when he says there was an unveiling of a “tip line” to award so-called “whistleblowers” bounties of up to $30,000 for exposing what the administration deems to be “fraud.” When questioning the president and Vice President J.D. Vance about the new initiative, he says Trump and Vance became annoyed by his inquiries into why the program was necessary. At one point during the Q&A, he says Trump referred to him as a “sick person,” adding: “I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”
The insults didn’t stop there. Feinberg says the administration, in its response, labeled him a “‘M—— Moron’ — spewing a slur for someone with developmental disabilities.” And Vance, on his official government X account, labeled him an “imbecile.”
His request to the White House to explain the decision to keep me off of the trip has gone unanswered. Still, he says he’s committed to doing his job, and doing it well. He also praises other journalists from other outlets who despite being isolated, continue the boots on the ground reporting. Feinberg insists: “I’m not there to be friendly with this president or administration.” He also says he shares the same sentiments about other administrations, regardless of their political affiliations.