Social media was sent into a panic on Thursday after a media pool falsely reported that there was an emergency at Mar-a-Lago with multiple ambulances, emergency vehicles, a helicopter, and vans of Secret Service agents leaving the president-elect’s Florida residence.
At roughly 4:15 p.m., Andrew Feinberg, a White House correspondent for The Independent, tweeted, “NOW: Per pool, 2 ambulances and several vans that appeared full of Secret Service have left Mar-a-Lago in the last few minutes.” In another tweet sent shortly after 4:30 p.m., Feinberg explained, “This is according to a note from the CBS tv pool crew near Palm Beach.”
Feinberg added, “The protective pool (a CBS TV crew) also reported ‘about 20-25 cars, two ambulances and a helicopter hovering above’ entering MAL a few minutes before the vans and ambulances were spotted leaving.”
Asked to “shed some light” on how the reports of an emergency at Mar-a-Lago started, Feinberg claimed that an unnamed CBS producer who was in view of Mar-a-Lago sent a pool note, saying, “Two ambulances and couple of vans full of what looked like secret service officers just drove out of MAL. I captured the motorcade coming into MAL via iPhone. Will feed shortly.”
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The Post Millennial reported that shortly after the media’s false reports began to spread on social media and “Pray for President Trump” started trending on X, Feinberg confirmed that the emergency vehicles were just a standard part of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s motorcade.
“CALM DOWN, PEOPLE. Per a transition source and @SecretService, the ambulances were part of Vice President-elect @JDVance’s motorcade,” Feinberg tweeted. “False alarm. Go about your business.”
Following Thursday’s incident involving the media’s false reporting, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, issued a statement on social media, saying, “The press has set up a fake, unofficial ‘pool’ because they want to feel important about themselves. In this case, some idiot at CBS overreacted and set off the fire alarm for no reason thinking they were going to get the scoop of a lifetime. F-cking dummy.”
Arthur Schwartz, a conservative consultant, tweeted, “CBS News’ @AlliNovelo was responsible for peddling disinformation because she’s desperate to make a name for herself.”
Conservative personality Mike Cernovich pointed out that the media’s “hoaxes” have already started despite Trump not even being in office yet. Meanwhile, media personality Jack Posobiec mocked mainstream media, saying, “Next the lib journos will say Russian ICBMs are hitting Mar-a-Lago. You can’t trust these people.”
