President Donald Trump on Wednesday disparaged CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins as a “Third Rate ‘Reporter’” with a “‘TRUMP’ addiction,” continuing his tendency to attack female journalists — including Collins, repeatedly.
The president’s insult followed his ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW from covering his White House. After the Trump administration removed CNN from its assigned presidential pool coverage duties, the other four networks — NBC, Fox News, ABC and CBS — suspended televised coverage of Trump in solidarity. MS NOW, CNN and Politico have sued Trump and several senior administration officials over the ban.
Trump seemed to be lashing out at all the involved news organizations in his social media post, but he singled out Collins by name.
“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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday upon his return to Washington from the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, where his address was broadcast by United Nations TV. He questioned why Collins was at the U.N. covering his speech.
“Why was she there? She’s got a ‘TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC,” he said.
MS NOW has reached out to Collins for comment on Trump’s apparent attempt to vilify her, as he has other women in the White House press corps.
Trump also appeared to be referencing the lawsuit filed against him and his administration in his Wednesday Truth Social post, saying, “They have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge.” That case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, who will hold the first hearing in the lawsuit in Washington on Wednesday.
Though Trump revoked their White House press credentials, reporters at CNN, MS NOW and Politico were still able to cover the U.N. high-level meetings this week because they were credentialed by the U.N. Still, Trump lashed out at Collins for covering his arrival to U.N. headquarters Tuesday.
“You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to be covering me. You shouldn’t be covering me,” Trump told Collins after she shouted a question about rising dissatisfaction among Republican voters over the president’s war with Iran.
“The United Nations allowed us in, sir,” Collins responded.
That exchange, and his subsequent belittling of Collins on Wednesday, adds to a list of instances in which Trump has responded to legitimate questions from female journalists with accusations and insults rather than answers.
During an exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in May, Trump lashed out at MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner, calling her “a dumb person” after she pointed out that the cost of his ballroom had doubled from $200 million to $400 million. In November of last year, the president yelled “Quiet! Quiet, piggy” at Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey when she asked him a question about Jeffrey Epstein.
On a Texas tarmac after the final night of the GOP’s midterm convention earlier this month, Trump told ABC News’ Rachel Scott that she was “the worst.” The outburst came in response to Scott’s question about how the federal government could afford Trump’s $1.35 trillion promise to the American electorate of $5,000 checks for each of them if Republicans keep control of Congress.
At July’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — which Trump insisted be rescheduled after the original dinner in April ended abruptly when a gunman attempted to breach the gathering — Collins received an award for her distinguished coverage of the Trump administration. Shortly after, the president appeared to make a joke comparing the CNN White House correspondent to transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney. The remark was met with resounding silence from his audience of reporters.
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