President Donald J. Trump was in rare form at Friday’s White House Correspondents’ Association’s (WHCA) dinner, reeling off zinger after zinger to his captive audience of fake news peddlers, including some familiar targets.
The scaled-down gala was held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., formerly the Trump International Hotel, after being postponed from April when the event was interrupted when a would-be assassin with a shotgun tried to charge into the Washington Hilton ballroom where the president, VP JD Vance and other top administration officials were gathered to enjoy the show.
Three months later, Trump finally got his chance to address his media critics, and he didn’t let it go to waste, savagely lampooning dour CNN anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, whom he likened to a man: transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
OMG. President Trump is CLOWNING Kaitlan Collins right now
“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!”
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan… pic.twitter.com/LKOtlf34rA
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 25, 2026
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award,” the president said. “It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn’t get the award; it was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it.”
“But she’s a young, attractive woman. She never smiles,” Trump continued. “I said, ‘Kaitlan, 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 received one of the awards that was doled out at the event.
The guest of honor went on to liken the masculine anchor to Mulvaney, who was featured in the ill-fated 2023 Bud Light marketing campaign that sparked a costly boycott of the brand, cratering sales of the popular beer.
“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,” Trump joked. “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,” he said of the advertising fiasco. “That was the worst commercial ever made, by the way, for those few people that want to hear that. Most people don’t care, but I would, I wouldn’t want to hire Dylan anytime soon. Think of it. They hired Dylan Mulvaney, and their market cap has gone down by $35 billion. Who wrote that commercial?”
The nation’s 47th president has frequently clashed with Collins during his second term. He famously humiliated her onstage at the notorious 2023 CNN town hall in New Hampshire that set off an in-house mutiny at the self-proclaimed “most trusted name in news” that culminated in the ouster of then-CEO Chris Licht, who was attacked over the decision to give Trump a forum back when he was still being heavily censored by mainstream media.
CNN defended its star because Trump was mean to her at the WHCA ball.
“Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional, trusted journalist being honored tonight for her depth of knowledge and the context she provides to audiences all over the world,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement to media outlets. “She reports every day from the White House and the field with real strength and tenacity and skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day. We stand by her to the fullest extent.”
