CNN host Kaitlan Collins has shaded President Donald Trump after he mocked her winning a prestigious award that involved him.
At Friday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Collins was honored with the Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure for her coverage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 2025 visit to the Oval Office.
However, during his speech, Trump attempted to downplay the achievement.
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award,” he said. “It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it,” he rambled.
Collins appeared alongside Jon Stewart on The Daily Show Monday on her night off from hosting CNN’s The Source, which aired a preview clip of the interview ahead of time. An extended preview of the interview released on Stewart’s YouTube channel has also been released.
Stewart listed a number of grievances aimed at Collins from the president, including telling her in the White House last month that she was a “corrupt reporter” and a “young, beautiful woman,” who “never smiles.... I never see a smile on her face, I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”
The Daily Show host also referenced Trump telling Collins last year, “You know nothing about nothing—you’re fake news.”
Stewart, who has been regularly slammed by Trump, told Collins of the president, “There are times when I watch him, and I think to myself, ‘This can’t be real.’ Like, this can’t be America.”
“That guy runs us?” Stewart said. “What?”
Collins spoke about her reaction to Trump’s ongoing criticism of her, which has included comparing her appearance to transgender singer Dylan Mulvaney.
“In the room, I think... I was not surprised when he insulted me,” she said. “That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This is just a bigger venue where it was happening.”
She later told Stewart, “It’s not really about me and 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.”
The journalist said it was “more effective” to remind people “when he is insulting me or when he is criticizing me about the question I asked or the reporting that I did, that he was so angry about in this moment.”
She added, “The fact that I got an award for it really bothered him clearly. And so I just think in those moments, it‘s important to put the reminder back on the work, and the question and the non-answers we get.”
Stewart asked Collins if Trump’s speech was “bombing as hard as it appeared on the TV” from her perspective in the room at Friday’s dinner.
Collins diplomatically said she has covered Trump for 10 years and in that time has “listened to pretty much all his speeches.”
She said she was more surprised that it was “so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks” given the dinner was filled with his Republican allies and staffers.
Stewart sarcastically suggested they were perhaps silent “Because of how much they respect him.” Collins said, “Who’s to say?”
Later in the interview, Stewart asked Collins if anyone from the White House apologizes to her after Trump’s vitriol aimed.
Collins deflected from a direct answer, but said, “That’s why I ask the questions the way I do, is because I want anyone to be able to listen to what I’m asking.”
The CNN host said she did not want to “serve one audience or one political leaning,” with her line of questioning.
“I want anyone, from my family in Alabama to people in the White House to people in Washington, to be able to hear that answer or hear that question and think, `What is the answer to that?,’” she explained.
Stewart joked, “Well the answer is, very clearly, you should smile more. It’s the answer to all the questions.”
Collins smiled at The Daily Show host recycling Trump’s standard insult but did not make any comment.
The CNN star became animated when Stewart asked about her journalistic hero and “dear friend” Wolf Blitzer, who presented the awards on Friday. Collins said Blitzer has called her every day since the dinner.
“Actually, one of the best parts of the dinner was Wolf reading the descriptions of the awards,” Collins said, “and why... my colleagues who also did esteemed reporting...deserved those awards.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
