Jacob Bogage, the Reuters reporter on the receiving end of President Donald Trump's backlash, saw an outpouring of support on October 29. The messages came from his workplace colleagues and other media industry members.
Bogage had asked Trump whether he had canceled the Kansas rally because he was “sick of travel”. The question came against the backdrop of Trump deciding to scrap rallies in Iowa and Kansas in the weekend before the November 3 midterms.
However, Trump did not take kindly to the question and replied, “You are a SICK guy! Reuters is terrible, by the way. Look at this guy — he's way out of shape... You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.” The video of the interaction was even put up by the official X handle of Trump's White House Rapid Response team.
Following what many perceived to be an insult aimed at Bogage, the reporter saw numerous messages of support on social media.
Industry professionals, colleagues show support
{{/usCountry}}Following what many perceived to be an insult aimed at Bogage, the reporter saw numerous messages of support on social media.
Industry professionals, colleagues show support
{{/usCountry}}Jeff Stein of The Washington Sun wrote, “.@jacobbogage is one of the finest humans and reporters I’ve ever worked with, give him a follow.” Alex Kirshner, who has worked for publications like Slate, wrote, “@jacobbogage is an excellent reporter who rattled the most powerful person in the world with this question. Made him a mess. He's also a good dude who recently skipped his big SEC homecoming weekend on a moment's notice to show up for me at a funeral. That kind of guy.”
Also Read | Trump makes ‘weird noises’ during South Carolina, Iowa rallies; social media users baffled by ‘eugh’ sound
Erik Wasson of Bloomberg Business added, “Jacob is a brilliant reporter and great guy. Hope he gets more followers out of this”.
Reuters colleagues Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw also came out in support. The former said, “@jacobbogage is a wonderful colleague, a very talented reporter and did his job exceedingly well today,” while the latter added, “Glad to call @jacobbogage a colleague and friend. A tremendous reporter.”
Who is Jacob Bogage?
As per the Reuters bio, Bogage “covers the White House, where he’s worked since 2026, and writes about U.S. economic policy. He previously worked at The Washington Post, covering the White House and Congress.”
Bogage began his journalism career as an editorial intern at Bethesda Magazine. He was then a staff writer for the Columbia Daily Tribune and then worked at Columbia Missourian.
His LinkedIn bio notes, “I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and I find things that are tough to uncover or understand and crack them open. For Reuters, I cover anything with a dollar sign at the White House -- taxes, spending, social safety net, trade and more -- and dig into agencies that intersect with those issues, like DOGE, IRS, the Social Security Administration and even the U.S. Postal Service,” and adds that Bogage is a “baseball nut and a bad golfer”.
He has degrees in journalism and history from University of Missouri-Columbia.