President Donald Trump’s communications staff has removed The Independent’s White House correspondent from the traveling press pool that was scheduled to cover his trip to Iowa for a campaign rally on Thursday.
Correspondent Andrew Feinberg was notified by the White House Press Office on Wednesday evening that he will “not be the print pooler on tomorrow’s trip” despite his scheduled shift in the rotation, which was confirmed days earlier.
“Thank you for your understanding,” the sparse message read.
The notice arrived one day after the president berated Feinberg inside the Oval Office, where Trump told him to “be careful” after trying to ask questions he didn’t like. He also labeled him a “sick person,” adding, “I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”
An official White House rapid response account on X also called him a “Mongoloid Moron” while Vice President JD Vance used his official government X account to call him an “imbecile.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association “strongly objects to the decision to restrict a journalist’s coverage simply because the president didn’t care for their questioning,” President Jacqui Heinrich said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“That is retaliation,” Heinrich, who works for Fox News, said. “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 White House Correspondents' Association 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…
— WHCA (@whca) October 21, 2026
The Independent is at least the third outlet to be removed from Air Force One in recent weeks following the president’s growing threats to media access and a high-profile lawsuit seeking a court’s intervention to reverse what the president has called a “ban” on three other outlets.
A federal judge has ordered the administration to restore press passes that belonged to several journalists from CNN, Politico and MS NOW, which the president said he was “banning” from the White House, likely in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.
But reporters from CNN and Politico continue to be barred from Air Force One on days their outlets have been assigned to provide out-of-town print or television coverage of the president’s travel.
Administration officials have sought to distinguish the removal of individual outlets and reporters from the White House, which a judge has rejected, to pool coverage on Air Force One.
In a recent interview with TIME, Trump denied that he was violating the court’s order. White House communications director Steven Cheung also said restoring press passes is “different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.”
The White House previously told The Independent that traveling on Air Force One is a “privilege not a right” and defended Trump as “the most accessible President in American history” who “will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press.”
On Wednesday, before traveling to a campaign rally in South Carolina, the president again lashed out at members of the press who asked him questions outside the White House
He called CNN’s Kaitlain Collins a “low IQ person” and a “dummy” and called a reporter for ABC News a “stupid person.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told Collins as he waved her off. “You're a low-IQ person, you're a dummy, and you work for CNN.”
Last week, Trump-appointed District Judge Timothy Kelly determined that the president likely violated the law by revoking press passes for CNN, MSNOW and Politico journalists. Less than 24 hours later, the administration appealed the order, launching a legal battle that will likely play out in courts for months while reporters fight for access to the president.
The Department of Justice has argued that the outlets were banned for national security reasons, though the president has not made any such argument. The White House Press Office only raised those concerns in letters to the outlets after a lawsuit was filed to reverse the ban.
In his order, Judge Kelly wrote that the president’s public statements justifying the “ban” clearly show that he targeted the outlets for their coverage, not national security concerns.
“Simply put, that is unlawful viewpoint discrimination,” he wrote.
Trump is scheduled to appear at a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa on Thursday to support U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn and other Republicans on the ballot.
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