What To Know
- Donald Trump insulted CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Truth Social, calling her “stupid and nasty” and criticizing CNN’s ratings.
- Collins responded on Instagram with just six words.
- This exchange continues a history of contentious interactions between Trump and Collins, including previous attempts to undermine her reporting and access.
After President Donald Trump called Kaitlan Collins “stupid and nasty,” the CNN anchor hit social media to correct the record.
Trump attacked Collins in a Truth Social post on Saturday, December 6, with random words capitalized and Collins’ name misspelled and punctuated with an apostrophe.
“Caitlin Collin’s of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago,” he wrote. “I said because it is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing. It is actually under budget and ahead of schedule, as my jobs always are. It’s just much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned. Interestingly, and seldom reported, there are no taxpayer dollars involved. It is being fully paid for by private donations.”
He ended his screed with criticism of CNN, writing, “FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore. MAGA!!!”
Kaitlan Collins/Instagram
In her Instagram Stories later that day, Collins wrote, “Technically my question was about Venezuela.”
Collins, who is also CNN’s chief White House correspondent, was seemingly pointing out a mistake on Trump’s part, since there’s only a record of her asking him on Friday about the appropriateness of his new FIFA peace prize — given his threats of war against Venezuela and the U.S. military’s strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean — and not about the price tag of the White House ballroom, according to The Daily Beast.
Trump and Collins have had battles in the past, as Politico reported in 2023. In 2020, for instance, he shut down her questions during a press conference, claimed she didn’t “write the truth,” and instructed her not to talk to him. Later that same year, Trump’s staffers tried unsuccessfully to force Collins to move from her front-row seat in the White House briefing room, a seat assigned to her by the White House Correspondents’ Association.