Donald Trump’s apparent dislike of Kaitlan Collins, a reporter for CNN, runs in the family. Although Don Jr. spent much of October 1 showering J.D. Vance with praise before and after the Vice Presidential debate, he wasn’t feeling as jovial during his post-debate interview with Collins — and she definitely matched his energy. During a conversation covering everything from Donald’s assassination attempt to Vance’s debate performance, Collins repeatedly offered corrections to Don Jr.’s talking points, including the claim that the media was responsible for his father’s assassination attempts. “No one wants the threats against his life to happen, but you can’t blame the media for those threats; there’s been no evidence,” she countered. She also brought up the fact that Vance, in the past, compared Donald to Hitler, after Don Jr. criticized the media for attaching that title to his dad.
Tapper: Well.. that was a lot pic.twitter.com/qgJ85uc9HH
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 2, 2024
Although the entire conversation between Collins and Don Jr. was brimming with tension, the dead giveaway that they weren’t exactly feeling each other occurred at the end of the interview. As the reporter thanked Don Jr. for his time and tossed the interview back to her in-studio colleague, Jake Tapper, she seemingly rolled her eyes in frustration. Although it was subtle, and possibly not even intentional, it’s clear the their interaction wasn’t exactly pleasant for her. Neither was it for Don Jr., who not only seemed more than ready for the back-and-forth to end, but whom blinked absently until he got his wish. Leaving no room for confusion, he also shot her one final look of disdain.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Collins challenged a Trump.
Kaitlan Collins is used to battling Trumps
Kaitlan Collins is no stranger to taking the Trump family head-on. And thanks to her habit of fact-checking Donald Trump, she’s even garnered his ire. For example, In May 2023, Collins butted heads with Trump after she moderated the CNN Town Hall event. During a montage of their exchange posted by The Wall Street Journal, Collins grilled the former president on his tattered relationship with his former Vice President Mike Pence and his claim that NARA (the national archives) was “extremely left” instead of “bi-partisan” as she explained. He also grew visibly angry when Collins repeatedly prodded his decision to withhold sensitive government documents outside of the white house. “Are you ready, can I talk, do you mind … It’s very simple that you’re a nasty person, I’ll tell you that,” he said.
By the way, Collins probably didn’t earn any points with Trump when she pointed out the startling low number of supporters that showed up to offer him a morale boost as he dealt with various legal issues earlier in the year. Worse, she claimed that Trump was bothered by the implication. According to Collins, the former president, who seems to have an obsession with the size of his rallies, was consumed by not having his followers in close quarters. She said he was “viewing this all through the lens of the campaign trail, and what that means going into it and the fact that they are kept cordoned off a bit of a distance so people can get in and out of the courthouse, has been driving him crazy” (via Yahoo UK).
