President Donald Trump held his first White House event open to the press corps since last Wednesday, and promptly criticized a favorite target of his: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Trump faced Collins and other reporters in the Oval Office during a time that had previously been marked off as private. Before their encounter, the president was last seen by the press at a Cabinet meeting seven days ago.
When Collins asked Trump about the status of the apparently abandoned $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund set up by the Department of Justice, it didn’t take long for Trump to get testy.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don‘t know. I know one thing... The weaponization fund, as far as I‘m concerned, was a beautiful thing. It was something I was—I didn‘t make it, but I was—I heard that, I thought that was the greatest thing because people like you have abused our people so badly,“ Trump began. “The fake news like CNN, like The New York Times and like others, have abused our people.”
When Collins pointed out that Republicans were critical of the fund, Trump told her to “be quiet.”
“—Have abused our people so badly, and you should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump continued.
“CNN’s a very corrupt organization, but, uh, with a corrupt reporter standing right there,” he said at another point. “Never smiles. She never—she’s a young, beautiful woman; never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her standing with hatred in her eyes.”
Trump, 79, complained about Collins, 34, not smiling during a previous Oval Office session earlier this year.
In February, when the anchor of The Source brought up the topic of Jeffrey Epstein and what he would say to the dead sex offender’s survivors, Trump lashed out.
“You are so bad. You know, you are the worst reporter. No wonder,” Trump said. “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.”
“She’s a young woman,” he continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
In response to Wednesday’s outburst, Trump critic Gavin Newsom referenced the president’s past. In 2023, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing, and then defaming, writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
“A sexual predator responding to a female journalist by telling her to smile,” the California governor wrote on X. “Absolutely disgusting.”
Trump seems to reserve particular disdain for female journalists who press him on uncomfortable topics.
New York Times reporter Katie Rogers, who co-wrote a report on his lighter second-term schedule, was “ugly,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that conveniently ignored her male co-author.
When Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey asked about the release of the Epstein files last November, Trump shouted at her, “Quiet, piggy!”
And last month, when ABC’s Rachel Scott asked Trump whether the over-budget renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was worth it amid the Iran war and higher gas prices, the president said she was “one of the worst reporters” and “a horror show.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast inquiry about whether Trump plans to tell any male journalists to smile more.
