US President Donald Trump publicly attacked CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, criticising her reporting in a Truth Social post in which he also misspelled her name. Calling her “Caitlin Collins of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty,” Trump objected to her on-air remarks about construction of a new White House ballroom and its rising costs.
Defending the project, Trump wrote that it is “much bigger and more beautiful,” adding that it is “under budget and ahead of schedule, as my jobs always are,” and reiterated that “there are no taxpayer dollars involved. It is being fully paid by private donations.”
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Collins responded on her Instagram Story, saying, “Technically my question was about Venezuela,” referring to her query on the administration’s bombing of alleged drug-smuggling vessels off the Venezuelan coast. The US has carried out multiple strikes in the Caribbean, which have killed more than 80 people, as part of what the administration calls an anti-narcotics campaign. Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has claimed the real motive is control over the country’s vast oil reserves, a charge the State Department denies.
Collins raised similar questions earlier in the day on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center, where Trump attended the FIFA World Cup Draw.
She asked the President about accepting FIFA’s newly announced peace prize while the military was conducting the strikes.
The CNN anchor is the latest in a list of women journalists targeted by Trump. In November, he told Bloomberg News’ Catherine Lucey, “quiet piggy,” a remark later defended by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as “very frank and honest” rather than an insult. Trump has long maintained a combative relationship with the press, often clashing with reporters who question administration policies.
