Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.
The first time I interviewed Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, it was during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He’d just returned from a reporting trip that took him, among other places, to a metro station in Kyiv — where he’d noticed a father chasing his young son through the tunnels as air raid sirens screamed aboveground. The boy, too young to grasp the danger, was playing and laughing; a fleeting moment of innocence, juxtaposed against the backdrop of war.
For all the missile strikes, civilian casualties, and frontline chaos that he’s reported on since joining Fox News in 2018, such flickers of humanity are what the 31-year-old Yingst always has at the back of his mind whenever he straps on his flak jacket and sets out to cover a world on fire.
“I’m often disappointed by the lack of empathy and curiosity that some humans have for one another,” the Jerusalem-based correspondent told me, days after the recent US strike on three nuclear sites inside Iran that set the world on edge. “With that in mind, I try hard to highlight humanity amid war, to encourage empathy from viewers and to educate our audience in a way that connects, rather than divides.”
Reporting the human cost of war for Fox News
For correspondents like him, bearing witness in the world’s broken places, that’s easier said than done. Especially since Yingst’s reporting has meant venturing to some of the most volatile corners of the Middle East — like Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Gaza. Among the tools he packs for those assignments are his laptop and phone, the background of which reads “Stay focused on the mission,” as well as a Fujifilm X-T3. He’ll take that camera into the field to snap photos for his personal Instagram feed, as well as for “Experience Humans,” the social media-based photojournalism project he created to capture the dignity and resilience of ordinary people he encounters.
Photos he’s uploaded to that account include a protest scene he snapped just days ago in Tel Aviv, featuring demonstrators outside the US embassy calling for a ceasefire and the return of hostages. His page also features devastating photos of onlookers near a blast site in Be’er Sheva; aid workers in Tel Aviv carrying wounded children after a ballistic missile strike; and an uncaptioned photo of a smiling young woman in Syria with her country’s flag drawn on one of her cheeks.
“It’s a passion project,” Yingst says of the photojournalism that augments his broadcasts for Fox News. “I want someone to be able to look at a photo or video I took and say: ‘Hey, those people seem just like me.’ Most of the time, that’s the case. Civilians make up the majority of every conflict we cover around the world.”
‘Shine a light in dark places’
That’s an example of how, even though his beat frequently intersects with geopolitics and world-shaping events, Yingst tries to stay rooted in individual stories. “I think that it’s easy for the public to demonize large groups of people — when in reality, every society exists on a spectrum with a variety of viewpoints,” he says. “There are 2 million people in Gaza. There are 10 million people in Israel. There are 90 million people in Iran. These are humans.
“I try to capture this reality not only in our TV reports, but also across social media. I’ve leaned heavily into TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook to connect with a younger audience (that) is increasingly interested in the reporting we do at Fox News. These frontline, real-time updates give people a taste of the work we’re doing and encourage them to see more by tuning in.”
Yingst doesn’t downplay the emotional toll of the work. He’s seen mass graves in Ukraine, morgues in Syria, and the devastation in southern Israel following the October 7th attacks. But despite the danger and pressure, he remains as driven as ever. “This is my life. This job is everything to me. I’m truly obsessed with the work. I like having the ability to shine light in dark places and to have a global audience feel empathy for the subjects I interview.”
Life away from the camera
What I don’t think I appreciated about Yingst, the first time I interviewed him, was just how physically demanding the work of a foreign correspondent is — requiring him to essentially train like an athlete in order to endure the exhaustion and stress of reporting from conflict zones. He squeezes in time for a workout whenever the chaos allows, even during coverage of something like a missile strike. “There was one night after we’d been reporting for two days straight. The adrenaline from covering missile impact sites and reporting under fire was still pumping. I got to the gym around midnight and got a great workout in.”
The discipline of a fitness regimen, he adds, is non-negotiable. “I go to the gym daily. Eat clean. Do ice plunges and cold showers. Go on runs and walks. Even during the war (in Gaza), I made a point to work out when I could.
His hotel room setup reflects that same intensity. “I’ve got 10 black T-shirts folded in my hotel room overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. I wear the same thing every day. A black T-shirt and jeans. Clean, focused, on-brand.” Nearby are his camera, a legal pad with TikTok ideas, and three bags of what he describes as one of his vices — Haribo gummy bears.
Even with missile strikes and breaking news never far from his view, meanwhile, Yingst keeps one eye on the battlefield and the other on – the algorithm. While answering my questions, for example, there’s a yellow legal notepad besides his laptop that’s filled with ideas for TikTok content to shoot. “I’m aiming for 1 million followers by the end of the summer, so I’m trying to ramp up my content strategies,” he said about his TikTok page. It’s a revealing snapshot of what the job has become: In 2024, a Fox News foreign correspondent doesn’t just file dispatches from war zones. He also has to think like a content creator, building an audience one post at a time.
