CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins has responded to a barrage of insults from President Trump during his first speech as president at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, saying his behaviour did not surprise her because similar personal attacks are now routine in the Oval Office. Trump has increasingly singled out Collins as a target, and at Friday night's rescheduled dinner he mocked her appearance, told her to "just smile" and made a laboured comparison between her and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a joke that reportedly fell flat with the audience.

Speaking to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, Collins said she was unfazed by the insults themselves but was struck by how silent the room was during Trump's remarks, despite it being filled with his staff, Cabinet members and Republican allies. She also explained that her approach to questioning Trump, who often deflects her queries at briefings, is designed to appeal broadly rather than to any one political audience. The dinner, held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., had been pared down and rescheduled after a gunman attempted to enter the April event and allegedly tried to shoot Trump. Over the weekend, Trump extended the joke by posting an AI-generated image on Truth Social superimposing Collins's face onto Mulvaney's body from a Budweiser advert.