{"id":229376,"date":"2026-11-01T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-lost-control-and-ordered-me-to-be-quiet-in-the-oval-office-then-it-got-personal-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:24:08","slug":"trump-lost-control-and-ordered-me-to-be-quiet-in-the-oval-office-then-it-got-personal-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-lost-control-and-ordered-me-to-be-quiet-in-the-oval-office-then-it-got-personal-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump lost control and ordered me to be \u2018quiet\u2019 in the Oval Office. Then it got personal – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What was supposed to be an announcement on fraud quickly devolved into Trump vs The Independent. Andrew Feinberg<\/a><\/strong> details how it all happened in the Oval Office
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W<\/span>ho could have guessed that Trump would get so spun up<\/a> over a law that\u2019s been on the books since Abraham Lincoln was president?
I certainly didn\u2019t when I arrived at the White House this morning.
I was there as part of what the Trump<\/a> administration has dubbed the \u201csecondary print\u201d element of the White House press pool<\/a>, part of the rotating group of news outlets that it brings into the Oval Office for events. Normally, I am the designated \u201cprint pool\u201d reporter approximately once a month, where I file short reports detailing what goes on in the Oval Office or any other event the president attends<\/a>.
This time, my only function was to ask questions. I had a list that I discussed with my colleagues in New York, but I decided to call an audible when a reporter posted that Trump and Vice President JD Vance planned to unveil a new program and \u201ctip line\u201d to award so-called \u201cwhistleblowers\u201d bounties of up to $30,000 for exposing what the administration believes to be \u201cfraud.\u201d
Then I became the focus of Trump\u2019s attacks.
For doing my job, I became the target of Trump and his team. Soon after, Trump lectured and unleashed at me his White House rapid response, who called me a \u201cMongoloid Moron\u201d \u2013 which is a slur for someone with development disabilities, a phrase I would never use \u2013 and the Vice President on his official government account labeled me an \u2018imbecile.\u2019
All for an event that started off pretty normal. White House officials were going to hand out a reward to Nick Shirley, the right-wing YouTuber whose viral videos jump-started the administration\u2019s crusade<\/a> against day-care and home health care businesses in Minnesota run or owned by Somali-Americans. For their part, Trump, Vance and even Shirley acted like the idea of rewarding whistleblowers was new and unique to this administration, with the YouTube personality claiming there has \u201cnever been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud\u201d in the country\u2019s entire history.
Because I\u2019ve spent most of my professional life covering the federal government, I know there\u2019s already a mechanism to reward whistleblowers on the books, I knew Shirley \u2014 and the rest \u2014 were dead wrong about that.
Since 1863, a law called the False Claims Act has allowed whistleblowers to sue on behalf of the federal government to recover funds that have been defrauded from federal programs. That law pays people more than Trump suggested through his program.
These lawsuits, called qui tam<\/em> cases, often involve the exact types of Medicare and Medicaid fraud on which the administration claims to be cracking down. And unlike the relatively paltry 1 percent which Trump claimed whistleblowers can be awarded, the False Claims Act allows someone who blows the whistle and brings a qui tam<\/em> case to receive as much as a quarter of whatever the government recovers.
The process is complex, onerous, and requires legal assistance, but the payout at the end can be significant. The new program Trump and Vance were touting appeared far less lucrative \u2014 and left Trump, not a federal judge, as the arbiter of who would be worthy of any rewards.
So why would anyone use the administration\u2019s \u201ctip line\u201d when they could get far more cash for using the tried-and-true process that\u2019s been around since the days of Abraham Lincoln?
I asked the president that exact question. His response? \u201cBecause it\u2019s a lot of money.\u201d
\u201cAt 1 percent, people will make millions and millions of dollars for turning in what actually is a somewhat routine crime of, you know, of millions of millions. But we\u2019re talking about we\u2019re talking about billions and actually probably trillions of dollars,\u201d said Trump, who may not have understood the question or was unable to fathom that ten to 25 percent is far more than one percent.
Trump may not have understood the query, but Vance did \u2014 and he was eager to mix it up. Months earlier, we tangled in the briefing room<\/a> when I asked him about the president\u2019s stock trading. And it appeared that the Veep was unsatisfied with Trump\u2019s response, so he chimed in to call the question \u201cdishonest\u201d and suggest there are certain frauds that fall outside the False Claims Act\u2019s remit, which is not true.
Sensing that he had been emasculated by the VP, Trump asked me who I was, which was odd because he had definitely recognized me earlier when he winked at me as Vance<\/a> delivered remarks earlier in the event.
I\u2019ve been around him in the Oval, aboard Air Force One and elsewhere countless times over the decade I\u2019ve covered him, and we\u2019ve even spoken on the phone on a number of occasions.
But Vance\u2019s interjection compelled Trump to ask: \u201cWho are you?\u201d
I answered him and said I\u2019m Andrew Feinberg and I work for The Independent.<\/em>
As the press gaggle went on, I attempted to ask more questions from the list I\u2019d prepared \u2014 including one on his plans to renovate a popular D.C. golf course. But kept finding myself at the end of Trump\u2019s fury.
Trump appeared to point to me more than once, but on each occasion he had apparently intended to call on the Agence France-Presse reporter directly behind me. Because from my vantage point he was pointing directly at my face, I started to speak up.
He didn\u2019t like that.
\u201cI don\u2019t know who the hell you are, but you better be careful,\u201d he said, an odd remark considering I\u2019d identified myself not 10 minutes earlier.
When the same thing happened minutes later, he lost it completely, calling me a \u201csick person.\u201d
He added: \u201cI actually think there\u2019s something wrong with you.\u201d
For the record, I had an annual physical earlier this month, and I can report I\u2019m in perfect health.
I was doing my job, and I\u2019ll be right back at it tomorrow.
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