I am writing this under duress.

Over nearly two decades as a reporter in Washington, DC, I’ve tried never to make myself the story — our job is to report the news, not make the news. First-person essays are just not my style.

But since the head of the Executive Branch decided to make me part of his story (and because the issue is what’s central here) I don’t have that luxury right now.

I had planned to get ready Thursday for a short late-afternoon flight to Sioux City, Iowa to cover the latest in President Donald Trump’s rally-a-day barnstorms to try and save his party — and himself — a great midterms embarrassment. That’s because The Independent was scheduled to be in the “print pool” seat aboard Air Force One, part of the 13-member traveling press pool that follows the president any time he leaves Washington.

In some ways it’s a prestigious assignment — we are only one of 15 outlets that share this responsibility, rotating on an alphabetical basis.

Yesterday, for example, a reporter from HuffPost was the print pool representative when Trump flew to South Carolina for a rally in support of Sen. Darline Graham. That meant The Independent was in line for the next trip the president would takes, whenever that might be.

That’s why when I saw that the president was slated to hold rallies every day this week, I did some quick calculations to figure out which day I’d be traveling and sent a White House aide an email on Monday asking if they had me penciled in for Thursday’s trip to Iowa. I got a reply shortly thereafter indicating that I’d calculated correctly.

But I’m not going to Sioux City today, after all.

On Wednesday, I went to the White House to shoot a video for The Independent’s YouTube channel — and to reconfirm that I’d be responsible for print pool duties on Thursday’s trip.

But back at home hours later, I received an unsigned email from the press office informing me that I had been removed from the trip.

The anonymous email did not say why, but it was obvious that I was being punished for what happened on Tuesday, when I had been in the Oval Office for the unveiling of a “tip line” to award so-called “whistleblowers” bounties of up to $30,000 for exposing what the administration deems to be “fraud.”

At that event both Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance became annoyed by a question I’d asked about the necessity of the program, I continued to raise my hand and chime in when, from my vantage point directly in line with the president as he sat at the Resolute desk, it appeared that Trump was calling on me once more.

But each time, the president became more and more incensed, at one point calling me a “sick person” and adding: “I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”

Not long after, the official White House messaging apparatus kicked in to start denigrating me. The administration’s “rapid response” operation called me a “M***** Moron” — spewing a slur for someone with developmental disabilities, a phrase I would never use — and the vice president on his official government X account labeled me an “imbecile.”

Apparently the bullying wasn’t enough because I did not take it quietly.

Although I asked the White House to explain the decision to keep me off of Thursday’s trip, I still haven’t received a reply. But I find it hard to believe that anyone in the West Wing was genuinely bothered by my attempts to ask follow-up queries.

Trump frequently encounters reporters who talk over each other and jump in at the slightest opening to question him. It literally happens any time he takes questions. It’s been the case since the day he was sworn in — the first time, nearly a decade ago.

And even though the White House might insist that they are simply acting to preserve decorum around the president, they’re really trying to create a safe space where the boss won’t get uncomfortable follow-ups from reporters.

Since the White House decided to usurp management of the press pool rotation from the White House Correspondents Association (a decision made in part to avoid honoring a court decision blocking their attempt to ban the Associated Press from the Oval Office), the press office has made sure that anytime Trump takes questions, many if not a majority of the “reporters” present will be from ideologically-driven media outlets that are more or less dedicated less to reporting news than supporting Republicans and denigrating Democrats.

To be fair, many of the people who work for those outlets do ask good questions on occasion. And most of them seem like good people.

But they’re in a different business than I am.

I’m not there to be friendly with this president or administration. And guess what? I wasn’t there to be friendly with the last one, either.

I routinely got into dust-ups with Biden White House spokespeople, whether it was over questioning them on whether Joe Biden had dementia or why the U.S. wasn’t pushing harder for Israel to stop bombing civilians and killing aid workers.

There will be an administration after this one. It may well be one with a Democratic president in the Oval Office once more.

And I’ll be there, doing the exact same thing.