U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during the signing of a bill to end the partial government shutdown, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2026. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
Daily Beast Content Officer Joanna Coles argues that President Donald Trump ordering CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins to smile while asking him about his longtime friend — convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein — was not some kind of clumsy deflection. Rather, she asserted it was a tool for controlling women.
“Trump has never asked a male correspondent why he isn’t smiling,” Coles said. “He didn’t say it to Jim Acosta. He didn’t say it to David Sanger. He didn’t even say it to Don Lemon. Men are allowed to look grim, severe, even hostile, while women are expected to look decorative, happy, even pleasing. Even if they’re asking about rape, corruption, and moral rot, a lady reporter must remember her lip gloss.”
When women speak with authority, they are considered “shrill,” while men are “experts,” said Coles. When women persist, they are “scolds,” while persistent men are “geniuses.”
“What makes Trump’s jab at Collins, 33, especially grotesque is that she was asking about convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein,” Cols said. “It took more than one thousand victims — one thousand! — for America to agree that Epstein was not a misunderstood libertine with powerful friends, but a serial predator running a vertically integrated abuse operation with powerful friends.”
And yet Trump’s instinct is to “shrug off Epstein’s crimes and, instead, focus on the real problem: a woman asking tough questions,” said Coles, who then brought up the double standard that society applies to women over men, including longevity expert Dr. Peter Attia, whose emails with Epstein “are being waved away as a lapse in judgment,” said Coles.
One of his emails included the claim: “P—— is, indeed, low carb,” and Attia described his correspondence with Epstein as “incredibly naïve,” despite being in his forties. CBS also does not apparently care that Attia made the choice to stay and hang with Epstein in Manhattan while his infant son was in an ICU with a stopped heart.
“In short, men can show a lack of judgment and keep their jobs, while women can show a lack of enthusiasm and be criticized,” said Coles. “And that’s the connective tissue to Trump and his craving for grinning gals. Trump wants a court, not a press corps. He wants obsequious cabinet members who ‘dear leader’ him until he falls asleep in a surround-sound loop of over-the-top flattery. He wants Collins to smile. Smiles signal obedience. In a way, it’s a compliment – a step up from ‘Quiet, piggy.’”
But the talented Collins owes no one a grin,” Coles said. “Nor does any women connected to the Epstein files, including the victims, reporters, lawyers, and podcasters.”
“Smiling is what you do when the system is working. Not when it’s protecting monsters,” Coles said.