Collins, a White House correspondent, reflected on the dinner, which took place on Friday, during an appearance on The Daily Show with host Jon Stewart. During the high-profile event, Trump reiterated his complaints that she “never smiles,” called an award she was given at the dinner for covering his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “fake,” and compared her to Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer. “In the room, I was not surprised when he insulted me,” Collins told Stewart. “That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This is just a bigger venue where it was happening.”
“It’s really not about me, and I don’t want it to be about my reaction,” she added. “I think if you let it become about that, then it becomes a back-and-forth between the two of us. And instead, I think it’s more effective to remind people in those moments where he is insulting me, or he is criticizing me, about the question I asked or the reporting I did that he was so angry about in this moment — and the fact that I got an award for it really bothered him, clearly.”Targeting Collins has become routine for Trump since he took office. He often comments on her stoic demeanor while reporting, claiming 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, and then we win our election in a massive landslide.”“I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face,” the president complained in February.“A corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles,” he said during a June 3 encounter with Collins in the Oval Office. “You never see a young, beautiful woman who never smiles. I never see a smile on her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”In his latest remarks at the Friday dinner, Trump mocked Collins as he referenced Mulvaney’s 2023 Bud Light controversy where critics boycotted the beer brand for doing a campaign with the transgender influencer. “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,” Trump joked. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER DO-OVER FEATURES ENHANCED SECURITY MEASURES, SMALLER CROWDCollins replied on Monday: “What was most surprising to me was — the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his Cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress — it was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks.”Stewart responded, “Do you think it’s because of how much they respect him?” to which Collins quipped, “Who’s to say?”
