Correspondent booted from Air Force One following Oval Office showdown

The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg learned on Oct. 21, 2026, that he would be excluded from traveling with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One the following day for a planned trip.

Feinberg was scheduled to join the traveling press pool accompanying the president to a campaign rally in Iowa on Oct. 22. However, White House communications staff removed him from the approved list of travelers on the eve of the trip, the British news outlet reported.

The move followed a contentious exchange between the reporter and the president in the Oval Office on Oct. 20. After Feinberg asked Trump a question about the construction of a golf course in Washington, D.C., the president told him to be quiet and said, “What’s wrong with you? Are you a sick person?”

The White House’s Rapid Response X account later referred to Feinberg with a slur for a person with Down syndrome, while Vice President JD Vance referred to the reporter with a similarly offensive term on his social media.

The administration has in recent weeks booted reporters, including from CNN and Politico, off Air Force One flights amid a high-profile legal battle over whether the president can unilaterally ban outlets from the White House complex.

Despite a judge ordering a temporary pause on a ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW, administration officials have argued that ad hoc access cutoffs from Air Force One are another matter.

“The judge basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House, but that’s different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told Time magazine.

Feinberg’s exclusion from the aircraft was condemned by the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Jacqui Heinrich.

“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,” she said, adding, “That is retaliation.”

Of his showdown with the president, Feinberg told CNN’s Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter: “Obviously the polls aren’t looking great for the president’s party, his approval ratings are in the subbasement and changing the subject isn’t working, so the White House is punishing the press because it’s easy and because they can. They’re creating a safe space for the president.”