During his speech, Trump congratulated Collins on receiving the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure award for her reporting on his contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It’s a fake — she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake,” Trump said. “But I don’t mind, I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it.”
He then turned his attention to Collins personally.
“[Collins is] a young, attractive woman. She never smiles,” Trump remarked. “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.'”