Donald Trump resorted to lobbing personal insults against CNN’s Kaitlan Collins yet again ― his latest in a long line of attacks on female journalists ― as he sought to explain why he’d decided to escalate his war on the media right now, weeks before the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump last month banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing them of reporting lies. A federal judge temporarily blocked the ban, although CNN has now been barred from covering his trip to Texas and Oklahoma.
Against that backdrop, Trump launched into a lengthy tirade about news organizations’ reporting on him and his administration during an interview with Time magazine published Thursday.
Read the full interview on Time.
“If I do the finest thing, if I found the cure to cancer, they would say, ‘Why didn’t he move quicker?’ They are just horrible people, and they’re so bad. So I believe in a free press. I believe in an honest press, but I don’t believe in fake news. And I know it’s fake because I know the thing — I don’t mind, you know, if I do something wrong, I don’t mind having a bad story. He’s written a couple of times about something. I said, well listen, he’s not wrong. But with the press, if somebody’s going to call me, if every single story is—look, I’ve done a lot of good stuff. I’m in the Oval Office. I mean, the public is very smart. If I wasn’t doing a good job, I wouldn’t have won that election by a lot.”
It’s “just bad story after bad story,” he moaned. “And when I say bad story, I can handle bad stories. I’ve got a lot of bad stories.”
He added, “Most of them are fake, and it’s not only CNN, and it’s not only MSDNC. It’s a lot of other people.”
Trump claimed he “can name 100 great things I’ve done” but never “gets fair press.” He continued, “Doesn’t have to be good. All it has to be is fair.”
He then singled out Collins for the personal attack:
“So at a certain point, you say, ‘What’s the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlin Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen. If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly.”
Trump then pivoted to boasting about the reception he receives at his rallies.