Trump Attacks CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as White House Media Fight Escalates
There is no end in sight to the controversy between the White House and several media outlets. As the press awaits a ruling from a federal judge regarding the Trump administration's ban on three leading news organizations, the president took to social media to insult a CNN anchor. Here is the latest as the situation escalates.
President Hurls Insults at CNN Reporter
President Donald Trump took to social media late Tuesday to call CNN reporter and anchor Kaitlan Collins a "sleazebag." The online rhetoric came just hours after Trump scolded Collins as she was covering him at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly earlier in the day in New York City.
The president posted on Truth Social, “All of the SLEAZEBAGS, like Third Rate ‘Reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins, of Fake News CNN, a truly unhappy person, said they weren’t going to be covering me.” He went on to say that “Then why were they ranting and raving like Lunatics, in the Press Area, at the United Nations? Why was she there?”
The 80-year-old president said that Collins and her network CNN have a "Trump addiction." He also lumped MS NOW into this bucket, saying the networks were “sick, treasonous and demented.” Trump ended the rant with “The ‘good news’ is that they have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Collins questioned Trump on Tuesday about the war in Iran, citing a poll that signaled that two-thirds of Americans do not believe that the U.S. is winning the conflict in the Middle East. The president responded by saying, “It’s an honor to be here. I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You should not be here covering me.” When referring to his ban on CNN at the White House, the president said, “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Collins correctly responded that the UN allowed CNN and other banned networks into the General Assembly. She later confirmed on X that her network is “credentialed by the United Nations to cover the General Assembly.”
Collins has been a frequent target of Trump over the last year. Last December, the president told her that she was “always stupid, and nasty.” The insults came after she asked him about his controversial ballroom project on the White House grounds. It was just a few months later that he told her that she did not smile enough.
In June, Trump told the prime-time anchor that she has "hatred" in her eyes. When speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner the next month, the president compared Collins to transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney.
Tensions Between the White House and the Press
It has been a rough week for the relationship between the White House and the media. On Friday, Trump unexpectedly announced that he was going to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. While some experts did not take the president's threats seriously, he made good on the comments the next day when reporters from these three outlets had their press passes confiscated when they tried to perform their normal reporting duties at the White House.
The three outlets joined forces and filed a First Amendment lawsuit on Monday. The lawsuit is asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would effectively restore access to the White House as the case gets played out. Against the backdrop of the restriction and the subsequent lawsuit, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News announced on Monday that the White House TV press pool organized by those four and CNN would pause operations in a show of support for their banned colleagues.
The pause in coverage by the press pool has left Trump and the White House without the typical video feed that covers the administration. For instance, there has been no video footage of Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he arrived in Washington, D.C. for meetings with the Trump team.
In another interesting turn of events, First lady Melania Trump‘s office approved credentials for CNN to cover her events on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly.
Collins has been forthcoming about the tension between her and the president. When appearing on The Daily Show in late July, she noted that “Regardless of who’s the president, whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump — those are the two I’ve covered — it’s really not about me. I don’t want it to be about my reaction. I think if you let it become about that, then it becomes a back and forth between the two of us.”
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