Kaitlyn Collins responded Monday to the string of insults President Trump lobbed at the CNN journalist during his first White House Correspondents‘ Association dinner speech, saying it was unsurprising, since hearing similar personal attacks has become normalized in the Oval Office.
The cable network’s White House correspondent and anchor has become Trump’s new favorite punching bag, and at Friday night’s make-up dinner, he didn’t hold back as he stumbled through a lengthy and exhausting speech. The pared-down event was rescheduled after a gunman attempted to enter the gala in April and fired a gun in an alleged attempt to kill Trump.
From the podium at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., Trump repeatedly lobbed insults at Collins, mocked her appearance and told her to “just smile,” and fumbled a convoluted joke comparing her to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney (who brushed off the comparison to Collins on TikTok over the weekend as a great compliment). That the joke landed with a thud was the real point of fascination from where Collins sat Friday night, after she was given an award for her coverage of Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“In the room, I was not surprised when he insulted me. That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This is just a bigger venue where it was happening,” Collins told host Jon Stewart on Monday’s Daily Show. “What was most surprising to me was, the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his Cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress — it was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks.”
Stewart joked that the silence may have been out of respect for the president. He also pointed out how often Trump deflects Collins’ questions during White House briefings. She explained how that has shaped the way she asks them.
“That’s why I ask the questions the way I do — because I want anyone to be able to listen to what I’m asking, whether that’s at a briefing or during a moment with the president, and think, ‘I want to know the answer to that, too,’ or ‘That is a good question,’” Collins said. “I don’t want it to only serve one audience or one political leaning. I want anyone — from my family in Alabama, to people in the White House, to people in Washington — to be able to hear that question and think, ‘What is the answer to that?’”
Over the weekend, Trump carried the joke further, posting to Truth Social an AI-generated photo from a Budweiser ad placing Collins’ face on Mulvaney’s body.
