The MS NOW Reporter Who Shielded a Colleague at a Shooting Now Covering Trump From the Inside
March 28, 2026. West Palm Beach, Florida.
Thousands of No Kings protesters had gathered roughly three miles from Mar-a-Lago while President Trump played golf nearby, and MS NOW White House correspondent Jake Traylor was reporting it all live for anchor Ali Velshi.
A physical altercation broke out between a MAGA supporter and protesters — the man had jumped the caution tape, knocked a woman's camera out of her hands, and was eventually chased by police. Traylor captured it in real time, interviewed the witness who called law enforcement, and noted on air that despite White House officials telling him all day that Trump wasn't watching, he had personally seen MS NOW playing on television screens in the offices of senior White House aides.
That last detail — quiet, specific, sourced from Traylor's own access inside the building — is what separates him from most reporters covering the same story from the same street corner. He's actually been inside.
Jake Traylor in Butler, Pennsylvania: The Shooting That Defined a Reporter
Before the White House, before MS NOW, before the No Kings protests, there was a press pen in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a moment that most journalists would spend years trying to forget.
Traylor was working as an NBC News presidential campaign reporter on July 13, 2024, covering what was supposed to be a routine Trump campaign rally. Reporters were positioned near the front of the venue, expecting Trump to announce his vice-presidential pick. Instead, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop, striking Trump in the ear, killing one attendee, and wounding two others before Secret Service agents shot and killed him.
When the shots rang out, everyone in the press pen hit the ground. Traylor, without stopping to think about it, covered ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott with his own body. Scott posted on X within hours: "Extremely grateful for my security, Jeff, who yanked me off the press riser & Jake Traylor who covered me on the ground."
Traylor later described the experience to a San Antonio reporter with a calm precision that was striking, given what he'd just been through. "There, of course, was that moment of panic, of uncertainty that was shared collectively by every single person that was there, whether that be the press, an attendee, campaign staffers," he said. "No one in that exact moment knew what was happening, but was fearful." When the shooting stopped, he went back to reporting.
His father, UTSA head football coach Jeff Traylor, found out about what his son had done the same way everyone else did — through social media. Jake hadn't mentioned it. "I did not find out about him taking cover on the ground and protecting his colleagues until I saw it on social media," Jeff Traylor said in a statement released Monday. "The kid is just wired differently. Obviously, I am very proud of what he did, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. That has always been Jake."
From Texas A&M to Politico: Jake Traylor’s Rise in Washington
Traylor grew up in the orbit of football — his father, Jeff Traylor (UTSA), has been the head coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 2020, building the Roadrunners into one of the stronger programs in the Group of Five. But Jake's pull was always toward journalism rather than the sideline.
He attended Texas A&M University from 2017 to 2021, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration with a journalism minor. While there, he served as president of Texas A&M's Class of 2021, ran the Washington Leadership Conference as a student facilitator, and was described by faculty and peers as someone who could command a room without making it feel like an effort. A former colleague wrote in a recommendation that he was "the perfect example of someone who leads through strong interpersonal skills."
After graduating, Traylor built his early career in Washington, moving through political media during one of its most volatile periods. He joined Politico as a White House reporter. He spent the opening months of Trump's second term covering the intersection of technology and political power. This specific and increasingly important beat put him in contact with figures like Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and JD Vance as the administration took shape around them.
In September 2025, confirmed by Barrett Media, Traylor left Politico to join MSNBC as a White House correspondent, as the network was rebranding as MS NOW and separating from parent company NBCUniversal as part of the Versant cable spinoff. MSNBC hired nearly 40 journalists from other outlets during that build-out period, and Traylor joined a White House team that included Vaughn Hillyard, Laura Barron-Lopez, and Akayla Gardner.
Inside MS NOW: Jake Traylor as White House Correspondent
The distinction between a reporter who covers the White House and one who covers it from inside is real, and Traylor occupies the second category. His byline has appeared on stories built from senior official sources — people granted anonymity to speak candidly about what's actually happening inside the administration, as opposed to what's being said at the podium.
In March 2026, Traylor broke an exclusive about internal dissent within Trump's White House over the president's public messaging around the Iran war. Senior aides described Trump's declaration that the war was "already won" as "mostly hyperbole" and said the president was "getting a little bored with Iran" — language that, when published, contradicted the official posture of the administration entirely. That story, co-bylined with Laura Barron-Lopez, ran under the headline "Just drinking the Kool-Aid": Inside the White House divide on Iran."
That same month, Traylor and Barron-Lopez reported Trump's reversal on the Jeffrey Epstein files — a story built on accounts from White House aides who described the administration's internal calculation as abandoning a "losing battle" once it became clear that Republican members of Congress were going to defy the president anyway.
The No Kings coverage on March 28 was a different kind of reporting — live, on-the-ground, in the middle of thousands of people — but it demonstrated the same quality. His observation about MS NOW's presence on White House television screens wasn't a throwaway line. It was a detail that only someone with genuine access would think to include.
The Jeff Traylor Connection: How the UTSA Coach’s Son Carved His Own Path
Jeff Traylor's name surfaces regularly in coverage of his son, partly because the Butler shooting brought the family into a very specific kind of public attention, and partly because the dynamic between them is genuinely interesting. Jeff is one of the more prominent Group of Five football coaches in the country, having led UTSA to a 12-2 season in 2021 and built a program that consistently punches above its weight. He's a loud, emotional presence on the sideline — the kind of coach who argues calls and gives full-body reactions to big plays.
Jake, by all observable evidence, operates at a different register. He's measured in front of cameras, specific in his sourcing, and apparently the kind of person who gets shot at and doesn't call home to mention it. His father said it himself: the kid is just wired differently.
That contrast — the high-decibel football world Jake grew up in, and the quiet, access-dependent work he does now — is part of what makes him a genuinely unusual figure among the current generation of White House correspondents.
Breaking Exclusives: What Jake Traylor Reports From Inside the White House
MS NOW's White House operation in 2026 is built around a small team of correspondents who each bring distinct sourcing and areas of emphasis. Vaughn Hillyard has been with MSNBC since before the rebrand and has deep ties across the Republican political world. Laura Barron-Lopez focuses heavily on immigration and policy. Akayla Gardner covers the economic dimensions of the administration's agenda.
Traylor's lane, established at Politico and carried over, runs through the technology-power nexus and through the internal dynamics of White House staff — what aides actually think versus what they're willing to say publicly. It's not a glamorous beat in the sense of live shots from the North Lawn. It's a quieter, more relationship-dependent kind of work that produces the stories that tend to matter more over time.
His presence at the No Kings protest on March 28 was an extension of that role — a White House correspondent who follows the story wherever it goes, including to a street in West Palm Beach three miles from a golf course where the president was spending his weekend.
Timeline: Jake Traylor's Career
2017–2021 — Attends Texas A&M University, majoring in Business Administration with a journalism minor. Serves as Class of 2021 President
2021–2025 — Joins Washington political media; eventually becomes White House reporter at Politico, covering Trump's second term with a focus on tech and power
July 13, 2024 — Covers Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania for NBC News. Shields ABC correspondent Rachel Scott was with his body during the assassination attempt. Scott's public thank-you on X draws national attention
September 8, 2025 — Announced as new MSNBC / MS NOW White House correspondent alongside Nnamdi Egwuonwu, joining the team with Vaughn Hillyard, Laura Barron-Lopez, and Akayla Gardner
March 2026 — Breaks exclusives on White House Iran war messaging divide and Trump's Epstein file reversal
March 28, 2026 — Reports live from No Kings protest in West Palm Beach, Florida, capturing a physical altercation between a MAGA supporter and protesters three miles from Mar-a-Lago
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who is Jake Traylor?
Jake Traylor is an MS NOW White House correspondent and a former Politico reporter. A 2021 Texas A&M graduate, he is known for his deep access to the Trump administration’s internal staff and technology-power dynamics.
Q: What did Jake Traylor do at the Butler, PA, shooting?
During the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Traylor (then with NBC News) used his body to shield ABC’s Rachel Scott from gunfire. His heroic actions were later praised by his father, UTSA coach Jeff Traylor, and colleagues on social media.
Q: Who is Jake Traylor's father?
His father is Jeff Traylor, the prominent head football coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Despite his father’s high-profile sports career, Jake carved his own path in political journalism.
Q: What is Jake Traylor’s role at MS NOW?
Since September 2025, Traylor has served as a lead White House correspondent for MS NOW. He specializes in breaking exclusives regarding internal White House policy shifts and presidential messaging.