CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. (The Daily Show/Screenshot)
Amid his ongoing feud with CNN and other outlets, one of the network's top anchors snuck in a "subtle dig" at President Donald Trump during a recent live broadcast, per The Daily Beast.
Kaitlan Collins is a prominent host and former chief White House correspondent for CNN and has gained significant attention in recent years for Trump's particular animosity towards her. During a 2023 town hall event, in response to Collins grilling him about the classified documents he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago, Trump lashed out and called her a "nasty person."
As The Daily Beast noted in its report from Saturday, "Trump’s attacks on Collins have become even more frequent" since the start of his second term, calling her part of "Fake News CNN" in a social media post from December, and lambasting her as "always Stupid and Nasty."
Trump's anger has become even more notable amid his ongoing attempts to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from entering the White House. The president himself has repeatedly said that the ban is due to negative coverage from each outlet, while his legal team has attempted to argue in court that there is no legal requirement to allow outlets into the White House and that the targeted outlets have failed to meet certain supposed professional standards. The ban has been struck down multiple times in court, but reporters for the three outlets have continued to be denied White House access nonetheless.
As The Daily Beast highlighted, Collins appeared to take aim at Trump in a subtle manner during a recent broadcast, by way of a prominently placed mug on the anchor's desk of her program, The Source, reading: "America Needs Nasty Women."
"After the ban was overturned by one of Trump’s own judicial appointees on First Amendment grounds, the president then kicked CNN off Air Force One and bluntly antagonized Collins, singling her out for criticism and telling her she 'shouldn’t be here,'" The Daily Beast detailed further. "Time published a lengthy interview with Trump this week in which he lashed out at Collins while ranting about how the media only covers negative stories."
“So at a certain point, you say, ‘What’s the purpose of, like, this crazy Kaitlan Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen,“ Trump said during the interview. "If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly."