CNN's Kaitlan Collins speaks out after Trump publicly insults her at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins has opened up about the moment US President Donald Trump brutally mocked her during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend.

On Friday (24 July), the 34-year-old found herself as the target of the Republican leader’s insults, being told her award was ‘fake’ and she needed to ‘smile more’.

During the dinner, which was attended by government officials and other members of the press, Trump lashed out at Collins winning the 2026 WHCA award for broadcast for her coverage of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2025.

The US President told the room that Collins ‘shouldn’t get the award,’ adding that ‘it was a fake, but I didn’t mind’.

He then said she ‘never smiles,’ a jab he's used towards her before, adding, “I said, ‘Kaitlin, do you ever smile?’ Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.”

Collins winning the award seemingly rubbed Trump up the wrong way (The Daily Show)

Speaking on Monday night’s The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart, Collins broke her silence on the headline-making moment.

She admitted that she ‘was not surprised’ when he insulted her, as it ‘happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office’.

“This is just a bigger venue where it was happening,” Collins explained, “What was most surprising to me was the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress. It was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks.”

Host Stewart then jokingly questioned: “Do you think it’s because of how much they respect him?”, to which Collins replied: “Who’s to say.”

Elaborating on how she remained calm and didn’t respond in the moment, she said: “I’ve always felt this, regardless of who's the president, whether it's Joe Biden, Donald Trump. It's really not about me, and I don't want it to be about my reaction."

The CNN journalist claimed the room was quiet when the remarks were being made (MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images)

She reasoned: “And so I think if you let it become about that, then it becomes a back and forth between the two of us.”

During the controversial speech, Trump also bizarrely compared Collins to trans advocate Dylan Mulvaney.

The Republican said in his speech: “I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.

"Dylan Mulvaney cost Bud Light $35 billion in market cap. That was the worst commercial ever made by the way, for those few people who want to hear that. Most people don’t care, but I would. I wouldn’t want to hire Dylan any time soon.”

Trump lashed out at Dylan Mulvaney during the same speech (Variety/Getty Images)

The influencer hit back in a four-minute-long TikTok video, in which she argued that 'being publicly mocked and criticized by this administration is actually, like, the greatest compliment of all because it puts me in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today'.

Collins also posted on Instagram following the dinner, sharing a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt which read: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

She wrote in the caption: “The second best part of last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner was receiving an award from my friend and mentor, @wolfblitzer.

“The first was reminding everyone why the First Amendment - and asking uncomfortable questions that people in power don’t like - matters.”