President Donald Trump again took aim at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, calling the newswoman “corrupt” and saying she should be “ashamed” for abandoning her conservative roots.
The president made the digs during a press conference in the Oval Office Wednesday, where he addressed his decision to drop the Anti-Weaponization Fund, a $1.8 billion slush fund that was supposed to help out Trump’s political allies, including Jan. 6 rioters.
After Trump declared he still loved the slush fund and thought it was “so important,” he bemoaned that he was a victim of government overreach and indicated he’d be able to prove it soon.
“We have all the information … So what we have and what we are going to be showing over the coming weeks and months you’re not even going to believe,” Trump said. “Some of you will believe it. Like, CNN will believe it because they knew what was going on. They’re crooked as hell.”
He continued: “CNN’s a very corrupt organization, with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles. A young beautiful woman never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes. Like she has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted.”
After Collins attempted to ask Trump a question on the slush fund, the president doubled down on his attack of the CNN anchor, noting, “Wait a minute. Be quiet. [The government] has abused our people so badly and you should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative.”
“She was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?” Trump continued. “But in particular, CNN does such false reporting, but now they have new ownership, so maybe it’ll straighten it out. It’s hard to straighten garbage out.”
Trump was, of course, referencing the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which is currently seeking approval from the administration’s DOJ.
Here is CNN footage of Trump trashing their network and Kaitlan Collins:
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 3, 2026
Trump: You should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be conservative from Alabama. CNN does such false reporting, but now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten it out. It’s hard to straighten… pic.twitter.com/XfZLuQAdn8
Watch the president’s comments for yourself above.
This is far from the first time that Trump has gone in on Collins and CNN. Back in February, Trump snapped at Collins and accused her of not smiling enough when pressed about the Epstein Files.
“You are so bad,” Trump said at the time. “You are the worst reporter. No wonder CNN has no ratings. She’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face. You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth. You’re a very dishonest organization, and they should be ashamed of you.”
CNN responded to the drama with a defense of Collins, calling her “an exceptional journalist.”
“She skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day, which audiences around the world know they can trust,” the news network said in a statement.
While Trump’s war against the media has heightened in his second term, female reporters have taken the brunt of the attacks this last year. “Nasty,” “piggy,” “terrible,” “ugly” and “incapable” are some of the insults the president has verbally launched at women reporting on him – in every location from Air Force One to the Oval Office.
While representatives for the White House and CNN did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s Wednesday request for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson previously defended the president’s blunt commentary.
“President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency,” Jackson said in a statement last year. “This has nothing to do with gender – it has everything to do with the fact that the President’s and the public’s trust in the media is at all time lows.”
