President Donald Trump went after CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins on Truth Social on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, calling the anchor “very dumb and unhappy” and griping about a panel discussion on her program. The network is standing behind her.
“Very dumb and unhappy Fake News CNN ‘reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins (really low ratings, also!), had a panel where discussions were all FICTION AND LIES,” Trump, 80, wrote in the post.
A network doing that badly in the television ratings, he continued, ought to be cutting loose what he called its “3rd rate ‘anchors’” and rebuilding the credibility of an outlet he described as once storied and now fading fast. His closing line — “See you all at the Republican National Convention tomorrow night!!! President DJT” — pointed to the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas, where he spoke on Wednesday, September 9.
The president never identified the segment he was objecting to, and more than one panel had aired on Collins’ most recent broadcast.
What Aired on Collins’ Program
Collins, 34, hosted a special “Countdown to Election Night” edition of “The Source” on Monday, September 7, with November’s midterm elections in view. That hour’s first panel included Republican strategist Doug Heye, New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh, NOTUS correspondent Jasmine Wright and Ashley Etienne, a former communications director to then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Heye faulted the president for keeping his political war chest to himself instead of steering it toward Republican candidates, and said Trump expects the party’s contenders to earn any help they get. McCreesh, who had been at a Trump rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, told Collins the crowd was subdued: the seats up front were taken, by his account, but the rear half of the convention center went unfilled. At that stop, Trump threw his support behind Sen. Darline Graham’s bid in the Republican primary runoff.
A second panel followed in the same hour, with CNN political director David Chalian; Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist who appears on the network as a political commentator; and Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. The group took up the administration’s handling of affordability. Collins played clips of Trump declaring the economy the greatest the country has ever had, then pointed to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in which 71 percent of Americans said they disapproved of the way he was managing cost-of-living concerns.
Voters ultimately cast ballots based on what they feel in their own pocketbooks, Chalian argued, so a president can say whatever he likes about the economy and it amounts largely to noise. Begala said inflation cannot be spun away and has proved politically fatal for past presidents; he named Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter.
CNN Stands by Its Anchor
In a statement, a CNN spokesperson called Collins “an exceptional journalist, reporting every day from the White House and the field with real depth and tenacity.” She carries that reporting into the anchor chair and onto CNN’s platforms daily, the spokesperson added, and audiences around the world know they can trust it.
Collins had not publicly responded to the post as of September 10 — the same approach she has taken to earlier broadsides from the president, whom she covers at the White House and questions in the Oval Office.
A Pattern of Going After Reporters
Collins has been a repeat target. A Truth Social post in December 2025 labeled her “Stupid” and “Nasty.” In June 2026, he described her as a “corrupt reporter” with “hatred in her eyes,” faulting her for supposedly never smiling. He came back to the theme at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in July, saying Collins never smiles and telling her to do so.
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart asked her about that moment in July. Collins said she prefers to redirect attention to her questions and the answers she does not get. “It’s not really about me and I don’t want it to be about my reaction,” she told Stewart, adding that engaging would only turn the exchange into a back-and-forth between the two of them.
Other women covering the administration have drawn the president’s ire, too. In November 2025, Trump called Bloomberg News White House correspondent Catherine Lucey “piggy” as she pressed him on the Jeffrey Epstein files, cutting her off before she could finish a follow-up question. He lost his temper in August with CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes over a routine question in the Oval Office. In late August, he turned on New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman over her reporting that he planned to skip the Ground Zero memorial service, calling her a “SCAMMER” and demanding the paper retract the story. The Times declined, saying its reporting rested on “information from multiple people with knowledge of the discussions and planning around New York’s Sept. 11 ceremony.” Trump did not attend the September 11 ceremony in New York City, sending Vice President JD Vance in his place.
