The president called Collins “always Stupid and Nasty” in a rant on his Truth Social platform. Trump kicked off the post by misspelling the journalist’s first name as “Caitlin.” He then fumed about a purported question from her on why his White House ballroom project is now costing more than originally thought.
Collins herself responded via an Instagram story, writing: “Technically my question was about Venezuela,” referencing what she’d actually asked Trump at the Kennedy Center, when she didn’t appear to grill him on the ballroom build.
Tapper backed Collins up on X with six counterpoints to Trump’s vitriol.
The anchor corrected Trump’s spelling of Collins’ first name, called his colleague “smart” and “nice” and argued that questions about the ballroom are “legitimate” because they are about the “construction of a controversial project on White House grounds.”
Tapper thanked Trump for his “explanation” then zinged the president’s claim that CNN’s “ratings are so low that they’re not even counter or relevant anymore” by concluding: “Generally speaking if someone or something is irrelevant, the President doesn’t talk about them.”