President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins once again, accusing her of having “hatred in her eyes,” while he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, June 3.
Just after answering a question about the “anti-weaponization fund,” which Trump referred to as “a beautiful thing,” the president berated CNN, calling it “crooked as hell” and “a very corrupt organization” before turning his attention to Collins.
“CNN’s a very corrupt organization, with a corrupt reporter standing right there,” Trump said about Collins. “Never smiles. She’s a young, beautiful woman (who) never smiles. I’ve never seen a smile off her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”
Trump said Collins’s alleged “hatred (was) because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted, and then we win our election in a massive landslide.”
Later, when the conversation steered back to the “anti-weaponization fund,” Trump again attacked CNN and The New York Times, accusing the media outlets of abusing “our people so badly.” When Collins attempted to interject, Trump curtly told her to “be quiet.”
“You used to be a conservative,” he said to her. “She was a conservative from Alabama. Can you believe it?”
Trump even suggested changing CNN’s ownership to “straighten it out.” However, he added that it might not be effective because “it’s so hard to straighten garbage out.”
CNN, in a statement to USA TODAY, supported its correspondent, calling Collins an “exceptional journalist.”
“Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional journalist, reporting every day from the White House and the field with real depth and tenacity,” CNN’s statement said. “She skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day, which audiences around the world know they can trust.”
Trump‘s “anti-weaponization fund,” which sparked widespread condemnation and a standoff between the White House and Congress, would offer up to $1.776 billion to what it described as “victims of lawfare and weaponization,” including those convicted of assaulting police officers during the 2021 riot at the Capitol.
However, it appears to be in limbo after the Justice Department seemed to retreat from the initiative on June 1. When asked whether the Trump administration was dropping its efforts, the DOJ said it would abide by a court ruling that put a temporary pause on the fund.
Wednesday’s incident was not the first time Trump has attacked Collins or CNN for their reporting on his administration. The journalist, 34, has frequently sparred with Trump, and in 2018, during his first administration, she was even banned from a White House event, according to previous USA TODAY reporting.
In February, Trump criticized Collins for “not smiling” at him after she raised a question about the files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are the worst reporter,” Trump told Collins during an exchange in the Oval Office on Feb. 3. “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.”
He continued, “You know 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.”
In December 2025, in a post to Truth Social, the president called the correspondent “stupid and nasty” while discussing construction on the White House ballroom.
In 2020, Trump walked out of the White House briefing room after Collins asked him a question about the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine during a COVID-19 briefing. Also in 2020, Trump called Collins and CNN “fake news,” a term he coined and used frequently to describe news organizations he considered biased, after she asked him about his relationship with North Korea’s president, Kim Jong Un, according to Politico.
Collins started her career as an entertainment reporter at The Daily Caller, a right-wing website founded by former Fox News star Tucker Carlson in 2014, after graduating from the University of Alabama. Later, she covered the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s first term as a White House reporter for the conservative outlet before making frequent appearances as a guest on CNN. Former CNN head Jeff Zucker then hired her as a reporter, and she quickly rose to become the network’s youngest chief White House correspondent ever, at 28.
She was promoted to chief White House correspondent ahead of President Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. Collins left her role as chief White House correspondent in fall 2022 after embattled ex-CNN chief Chris Licht named her co-host of now-cancelled “CNN This Morning” alongside Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow.
After the cancellation of “This Morning,” Collins was named anchor of her own show, “The Source With Kaitlan Collins.”
Contributing: Jay Stahl, Melina Khan / USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
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