Donald Trump sees enemies of the people at every media outlet save Fox News. But there is one journalist who triggers him like no other. That would of course be CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, who has become famous for his often confrontational briefing room and press conference interchanges. Something like Trump, he brings a performative brio to his role, and his truth-to-power moments, besides being fantastic television, have made him a journalistic folk hero in some quarters of the reality-based community, and, to the MAGA crowd, the paradigmatic enemy of the people. It’s a familiar dance by now: Acosta asks some tough question or other, Trump or White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lays into him, video of the exchange goes viral online.

View more

On Wednesday, a most explosive Trump-Acosta exchange took Trump’s war on CNN nuclear. It was a remarkable moment in the history of White House press conferences. In a measured tone, Acosta challenged Trump on his characterization of the U.S. migrant caravan as an “invasion.” They went back and forth a bit on that topic. Acosta pressed him. Trump responded, visibly annoyed, seeming to struggle to maintain his cool. Then the dam burst. “You know what,” said Trump. “I think you should let me run the country. You run CNN. And if you did it well, your ratings would be much better.” As Trump moved on to NBC’s Peter Alexander, Acosta tried to get another question in. A White House intern attempted to take Acosta’s mic away as he continued with a follow-up about the Russia investigation. Trump seethed at the podium, pacing back and forth. “That’s enough,” he barked at Acosta. “Put down the mic.” Acosta did. And then came the kicker: “I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself, having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”

Within an hour or so, the episode was dominating the news cycle, as if there hadn’t been a midterm election less than 24 hours prior. It didn’t appear to be calculated on Trump’s part—even without the Acosta blowup, it was a strange, angry, stream-of-consciousness press conference. But it effectively changed the subject from the loss of the House, and soon the administration doubled down.

Later in the day, after Jeff Sessions’s forced resignation, the White House took the unprecedented step of revoking Acosta’s so-called “hard pass,” a credential that the Secret Service issues to reporters for fast access to the White House grounds. Additionally, Sanders tweeted out an apparently doctored video purporting to show Acosta shoving away the White House intern’s arm as she reached for his mic. In response, the journalistic community has rallied around Acosta, with support coming in even from some of the most unlikely places. “Plenty to criticize Acosta about,” tweeted Chuck Ross, of the typically CNN-averse Daily Caller, “but he did not ‘place his hands’ on the intern. It’s ridiculous for anyone to suggest he did. And after Trump joked about [Greg] Gianforte body-slamming [Guardian reporter] Ben Jacobs the White House can’t bust out the fainting couch now.”

CNN, for its part, issued a statement saying that the revocation of Acosta’s press pass “was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today’s press conference. In an explanation, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied. She provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy. Jim Acosta has our full support.”

I reached out to a spokeswoman for CNN President Jeff Zucker to see if he himself had anything to say on the matter, but she said there would be no further comment. Zucker did, however, throw his support behind Acosta when I interviewed him for my CNN story last month. In my conversations with CNN officials, I cited a criticism, among some journalists, that Acosta is at times a grandstander, for whom sometimes the drama seems to overwhelm the journalism. This prompted a full-throated response from Zucker. “Jim Acosta holds his own in the briefing room and beyond,” he told me at the time. “Being persistent and asking tough questions is his job, he does it brilliantly, and he has our complete support.”

Even before Wednesday’s fireworks, it was hard to imagine the dynamic between CNN and Trumpworld getting any uglier. Just weeks ago, CNN itself became the news when it was one of several foiled mail-bomb targets of a Trump-obsessed Florida man. Another unhinged Trump supporter had recently called CNN’s switchboard threatening to gun down employees. More commonly, the network’s journalists endure scathing abuse from Trump supporters at his rallies, where “CNN sucks” chants and placards are all the rage. “There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” Zucker said in a statement that he issued following the bomb threat. “The president, and especially the White House press secretary, should understand their words matter.”

It’s worth noting, though, that behind the scenes, the interactions between White House officials and CNN’s Washington bureau have typically been far less dramatic, at least up until now. “The conversations between CNN and the White House either at my level or with our correspondents are much more normal than you might expect, considering some of the noise you hear around that relationship,” Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist told me when we spoke in early October. “The president might attack CNN at a rally, and yet every day, you hear CNN reporters citing White House sources.”

Feist had a pretty good idea about why the White House continues to engage despite the enemy-of-the-people messaging it puts out publicly. “I think they know that we have a very large and politically diverse audience,” he said. “We reach people who vote, and people who are swing voters, and nobody in American politics would take those viewers for granted. That’s why any White House wants to make sure that CNN’s coverage reflects their perspective as much as possible.”

More Great Stories from Vanity Fair

— Pope vs. Pope: the Catholic Church’s civil war

— Michael Cohen reveals details about Trump’s private racism

— How MSNBC turned cable news into an addiction

— Inside the fake MAGA intelligence company

— Trump’s hapless workday, by the hour

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.