The White House is striking back at the reporter who publicly picked apart President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meltdown this week.
Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent for The Independent, was informed Wednesday that he would no longer serve as the print pool reporter on Trump’s Thursday trip, media reporter Max Tani revealed on X. According to Tani, Feinberg confirmed the White House gave no reason for the change.
The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned the move in a statement posted by Tani, saying it “strongly objects to the decision to restrict a journalist’s coverage simply because the president didn’t care for their questioning. That is retaliation.”
“The American public’s right to an independent press depends on reporters being able to do their jobs without fear that challenging the president will cut off their access,” the group added.
The print pooler travels with the president and files reports on his movements and remarks for the rest of the press corps. Feinberg wrote Tuesday that he typically fills the role about once a month.
The decision came one day after Trump turned on Feinberg during an Oval Office event meant to promote a new administration tip line that pays whistleblowers for reporting fraud.
Feinberg had pressed the president on why anyone would use the program when an existing federal law already offers tipsters a far bigger share of recovered money. Trump answered that it was “a lot of money,” and the exchange quickly turned hostile.
After asking Feinberg who he was, Trump warned him, “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you better be careful.” He later called the reporter a “sick person” and added, “I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”
Feinberg responded with a first-person piece in The Independent on Tuesday recounting the episode. In it, he pointed out that Trump had winked at him earlier in the event and that the two had interacted many times over the past decade. He later noted on X that he had introduced himself to Trump just minutes before the president claimed not to know him.
He closed his piece with a promise to return to work. “I was doing my job, and I’ll be right back at it tomorrow,” he wrote.
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