Donald Trump has hit out at CNN star Kaitlan Collins for asking him a question at the United Nations General Assembly, seemingly unaware that the media he banned from the White House can quiz him anywhere else.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump walked past the waiting press at the UN’s New York headquarters shortly before 10 am, where Trump was set to address world leaders inside the chamber.
Collins, whose organization was banned from the White House along with POLITICO and MS NOW, began asking the president about a new poll suggesting two-thirds of Americans don’t believe the U.S. is winning the war against Iran.
Trump replied that he was “surprised” to see CNN represented.
“The United Nations let us in, sir,” she told him.
“You should not be here covering me,” he fired back. “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering.”
The president’s remarks appeared to misunderstand how the free press works in America.
While Trump has prevented three outlets from entering the White House grounds by revoking their hard passes, he can not simply ban the media from covering him at a public or global gathering, no matter how much he dislikes them.
Notably, Melania Trump, who stood beside him in silence, has also undercut her husband’s attempt to limit the press by credentialing CNN to cover her at an event on the sidelines of the UN this week.
Trump’s remarks to Collins came after CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO filed a lawsuit on Monday morning accusing the president of violating their First Amendment and due-process rights.
Then, in an extraordinary escalation, America’s five major TV networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News—suspended their coverage as part of the White House TV pool, leaving the president without an assigned camera crew to cover his speech at the UN. Instead, people interested in what he has to say will have to find other ways to stream the event.
But the lack of a TV pool led to farcical scenes at the White House as Trump tried to unveil his new helipad during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn before he left for New York on Monday afternoon.
Trump used gold scissors to cut a red, white and blue ribbon and made a series of remarks as he shook hands with construction workers and other officials.
With the traditional TV pool absent, the White House was forced to rely on its own video feed for coverage.
But Trump was not speaking into a network microphone, and the helicopter behind him was so loud that neither the reporters nearby nor people watching online could hear a word the president said.
Networks on Tuesday televised the president’s speech using the United Nations live feed.
Fortunately for the president, its audio was working, allowing him to be heard as he justified his war with Iran and claimed: “I believe we will make a deal right after the election.”
“They’re waiting to see how I do in the election; what they don’t realize is that I am not running,” he said. “I did that already and won in a landslide.”
