US donald trump reporters The White House
A reporter pointed out the huge flaw in Trump’s new policy, and his snarling reaction had more red flags than a Beijing parade
Tuesday’s Oval Office policy announcement went as well as you’d expect, with the president who waves at imaginary people losing it at some of the assembled journalists for the unforgivable crime of doing journalism.
Trump was launching a new anti-fraud initiative, in which whistleblowers could be rewarded up to $30,000 if their information recovers money.
Trump announces "fraud whistleblower incentive program" — "All Americans will now be able to go to fraud dot gov and report cases of corruption and theft of taxpayer dollars in their communities … if you turn somebody in and you find $1 billion, we’re giving a commission of 1%. That’s a lot of money"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2026
Narrator: No whistleblower would be rewarded with one per cent of a billion dollars.
As is so often the case, Trump unleashed his tiny temper on a female reporter.
Trump snaps at a woman reporter: "Wait. Shhh. Wait, wait. WAIT!" https://t.co/vi4gfbWkpi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2026
In a departure from the usual script, he also went off on one at a male reporter, for pointing out that there is already a fraud-reporting scheme that pays a lot more than one per cent, and it’s been around since Lincoln was president.
😳 Trump snaps at another reporter: "Hey! I don’t know who the hell you are but you better be careful" https://t.co/2QeC7cwZoR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2026
He did, in fact, know who the reporter was.
I had told him exactly who I was not five minutes before this exchange.
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 20, 2026
Mr Feinberg tried to speak again, and was rewarded with a whole snarl – not just one per cent of a snarl. Watch what happened.
YIKES — Trump loses his shit at a reporter for the third time during this Q&A — "Wait wait — Quiet. Quiet!!!! What’s wrong with you? Are you a SICK person?" https://t.co/2iiELisaxg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2026
JD Vance, who had already tried to shoot down the reporter’s point in person, decided to set the dogs on him online.
He picked the wrong guy to snipe at. This was Andrew Feinberg’s response.
Tweeters were not surprised at the president’s outburst, but they were appalled.