President Trump used his first-ever White House Correspondents' Dinner speech to take aim at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, comparing her to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a jab that drew a swift defense from the network.
Trump delivered the remarks Friday night at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington, D.C., before roughly 700 guests at the rescheduled gala, which had been moved from the larger Washington Hilton after a gunman disrupted the original April 25 dinner. The event marked the first time Trump attended the annual press dinner as a sitting president, having skipped it throughout his entire first term and initially during his second.
The president zeroed in on Collins, who was receiving a journalism award from the White House Correspondents' Association that evening. Trump told the crowd he had believed Collins "had really made it big with a major new sponsorship", then delivered the punchline.
"But then I informed her that it wasn't her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney."
The joke referenced the 2023 Bud Light marketing campaign in which Mulvaney, a transgender influencer and actor, shared images of herself with a custom Bud Light can featuring her face to mark her first full year of transitioning. That campaign triggered a sustained consumer boycott that hammered the beer brand's sales. Trump told the dinner crowd that Mulvaney "cost Bud Light $35 billion in market cap."
He pressed the point further, calling the Mulvaney ad "the worst commercial ever made" and adding: "They hired Dylan Mulvaney, and their market cap has gone down by $35 billion. Who wrote that commercial?"
Trump did not stop at the Mulvaney comparison. He turned to Collins's WHCA award directly, offering a backhanded acknowledgment.
"I want to personally congratulate CNN's Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn't get the award, it was a fake. But I didn't mind."
He then commented on Collins's demeanor, telling her she was "a young, attractive woman" who "never smiles." Trump said he had told Collins to smile, adding, "You have a nice position, you're at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan! Just smile."
Collins, who reports daily from the White House and has sparred with Trump during Oval Office press conferences, did not publicly respond to the remarks. CNN, however, moved quickly. A network spokesperson told the Daily Mail that Collins "is an exceptional, trusted journalist being honored tonight for her depth of knowledge and the context she provides to audiences all over the world."
"She reports every day from the White House and the field with real strength and tenacity and skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day. We stand by her to the fullest extent."
The statement was notable for its speed and its breadth, CNN did not simply defend Collins's reporting but framed the response as a full institutional endorsement. Whether that shields Collins from further presidential ribbing or invites more of it remains an open question. Trump has long relished the back-and-forth with networks he labels "fake news," and Melania Trump's recent pushback against a late-night host's joke showed the broader Trump orbit is willing to engage media figures directly when it sees a line crossed.
The evening carried weight well beyond the comedy. The original April 25 White House Correspondents' Dinner was canceled after a gunman opened fire outside the ballroom where Trump and Cabinet members were seated. The suspect, Cole Allen, fired a shotgun near a security checkpoint outside the Washington Hilton. Secret Service officer Victor Gonzales, shot during the attack, survived thanks to a protective vest and is credited with stopping the assailant. Gonzales was honored at Friday's rescheduled event.
The legal case against Allen is still moving through the courts. He has pleaded not guilty, and his defense team has moved to disqualify prosecutors from the case.
Trump's decision to attend the rescheduled dinner was itself a surprise. Breitbart reported that the dinner was relocated from the 3,000-capacity Washington Hilton to the 700-capacity Waldorf Astoria, with enhanced security protocols including unique QR codes, government-issued photo ID requirements, and a private security firm working alongside the Secret Service.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran acknowledged the threat environment plainly: "We do expect bad people to show up. It's just a reality of where we are, but we're treating it no differently than any other site that the president goes to."
WHCA President Weijia Jiang framed the rescheduled event as a statement of resolve, saying it "will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence." Jiang also confirmed the enhanced measures, telling reporters that "every single dinner guest" faced new security requirements.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed the tone beforehand, saying Trump's speech would be "a combination of unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious, all at the same time." She added: "One thing I can assure you, it will be entertaining."
Trump delivered on that billing. Beyond Collins and Mulvaney, he leveled barbs at California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Bruce Springsteen, and Rosie O'Donnell. The specific contents of those remarks were not detailed in available reporting.
He also struck a serious note on political violence. The New York Post reported that Trump told the room: "Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve... to show that in America we do not yield to political violence."
And in characteristic fashion, he mixed gravity with showmanship. Trump jokingly announced he would run for a "fourth term" while donning a "Trump 2028" hat, calling it a "scoop" for the assembled reporters. "But just like my presidency, the second time is always better," he said. "It's always better, and the third time will be better yet."
The joke landed in a room full of journalists who have covered Trump's repeated willingness to upend expectations. He has declined to name a successor and made clear he views his approach to the presidency as one of a kind.
Trump's willingness to show up at the Waldorf Astoria, three months after someone tried to kill him at the same type of event, and spend the evening needling the press corps, governors, and celebrities was itself the statement. He has responded to the April assassination attempt not by retreating but by pressing forward aggressively, including calling for accountability from political figures whose rhetoric he views as contributing to the climate of threats.
CNN's decision to issue a formal defense of Collins rather than let the roast-style remarks pass without comment reflected the network's posture toward the current White House. The spokesperson's statement praised Collins's "strength and tenacity" and pledged the network stands by her "to the fullest extent", language more suited to a legal dispute than a dinner joke.
That posture tracks with a broader pattern. Networks that position themselves as adversaries of the president tend to treat every presidential remark as a press-freedom test case. Whether that framing serves their audiences or simply reinforces the combative dynamic Trump clearly enjoys is a question CNN has not answered.
Collins herself has built a career on direct exchanges with Trump, including pointed exchanges during Oval Office press conferences. She has not publicly responded to Friday's remarks. The WHCA has not disclosed the specific criteria for the award she received.
Trump, for his part, seemed unbothered. He congratulated Collins, called the award fake, told her to smile, compared her to a transgender influencer who cost a beer company billions, and moved on to his next target. The Washington Examiner noted that the tone was expected to be somewhat more muted given the circumstances of the assassination attempt, but "muted" is a relative term when the speaker is Donald Trump.
A president who skipped this dinner for years, survived a shooting at the last one, and then showed up at a smaller venue under heavy security to roast the press corps is not a president worried about what CNN thinks of his material.
