PoliticsDonald Trump Warns Reporter to 'Be Careful' After Lashing Out at Him During Heated Oval Office Exchange: 'Are You a Sick Person?'
Donald Trump attacked another journalist for asking tough questions.
Oct. 21 2026, Updated 3:02 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump lashed out at a journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday, October 21. The confrontational exchange occurred during a White House event held with Vice President J.D. Vance to launch the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP).
The exchange involved Andrew Feinberg, The Independent's Chief White House Correspondent.
Feinberg questioned the rationale of the new whistleblower program, which offers rewards of up to $30,000 for reporting government fraud, asking why someone would use it when older, existing programs offer much higher payouts. Trump initially responded, "Because it's a lot of money.”
'You Better Be Careful'
The POTUS asked journalist Andrew Feinberg, 'What's wrong with you?'
Feinberg then attempted to pivot and ask a follow-up question regarding planned updates and a new golf course at East Potomac Park. Trump abruptly cut him off, repeating, "Wait, wait, wait, wait," and "Quiet, quiet.”
Trump then tensed up and asked, "What's wrong with you? Are you a sick person? I actually think there's something wrong with you."
Feinberg calmly responded, "Not that I know of, sir." Trump then warned him, "I don't know who the h---- you are, but you better be careful.”
J.D. Vance Supports Donald Trump
The reporter questioned Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for a new program paying whistleblowers hefty bounties.
Feinberg later said that he had his yearly physical and that it went well, adding he was “doing my job, and I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“I decided to call an audible when a reporter posted that Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance planned to unveil a new program and ‘tip line’ to award so-called ‘whistleblowers’ bounties of up to $30,000 for exposing what the administration believes to be ‘fraud’,” Feinberg wrote in a piece about the exchange.
“For doing my job, I became the target of Trump and his team," Feinberg said.
Vance followed his boss and took a stab at Feinberg, posting a clip of the exchange on X and captioning it, “President Donald J. Trump eviscerates imbecile ‘journalist’ Andrew Feinberg for misbehaving in the Oval Office.”
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Social Media Users Back the Journalist
Critics blasted Trump's latest outburst as 'rabid.'
In response, Feinberg retorted, “If you’re going to insult me, at least have the guts to tag my account.”
Some of social media’s loudest voices sided with the reporter, including popular anti-Trump account JoJoFromJerz, who wrote of Trump’s outburst, “Totally f------ normal to growl at reporters like a rabid animal. Totally normal folks.”
A bipartisan chorus of critics called out the POTUS' latest attack on the press.
Progressive activist Lucas Sanders noted, “This is what happens when you elect this guy who hates Reporters and Journalists!”
“Yikes, Piggy!” quipped another popular anti-Trump activist, Reggie B.Blue, referencing the POTUS' infamous outburst at a female reporter.
“Boomer rage,” replied anti-Trump Republican campaigner Chris Nelson about the 80-year-old president.
