CNN’s Kaitlan Collins speaks out after Trump told her to ‘smile more’ and called her award ‘fake’ at the Correspondents’ Dinner.

CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins has broken her silence after Donald Trump publicly mocked her at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, telling the room she should not have won her award and that she needed to smile more.

Collins, 34, had just received the 2026 WHCA award for broadcast journalism for her coverage of Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2025. Trump used his speech to dismiss it.

“She shouldn’t get the award,” he told the room.

“It was a fake, but I didn’t mind.”

He then added: “She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you ever smile?’ Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.”

‘This is just a bigger venue’
Collins appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday night and addressed the moment directly, saying she was not surprised by Trump’s comments, only by the reaction of the room.

“This happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office,” she told Stewart.

“This is just a bigger venue where it was happening. 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.”

Stewart jokingly asked whether the silence was out of respect for the president. Collins replied: “Who’s to say.”

She explained why she chose not to react in the moment.

“I’ve always felt this, regardless of who’s the president, it’s really not about me and I don’t want it to be about me. If you let it become about that, then it becomes a back and forth between the two of us.”

Following the dinner, Collins posted an Eleanor Roosevelt quote on Instagram:

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

In her caption she wrote that the best part of the evening was reminding everyone why the First Amendment and asking uncomfortable questions matters.

Trump also targeted Dylan Mulvaney
Collins was not the only one in Trump’s crosshairs that evening. He also took aim at trans activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney, comparing her to Collins and referencing the 2023 Bud Light sponsorship controversy.

“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I was informed it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney,” Trump said, before claiming Mulvaney had cost the brand $35 billion in market cap.

Mulvaney responded in a four-minute TikTok, saying being mocked by the administration was “the greatest compliment of all” because it put her “in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today.”