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See the full story · 2 sourcesPresident originally made a joke comparing the CNN journalist with trans actor and influencer Dylan Mulvaney during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner
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President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated image of CNN’s Kaitlan Collins seemingly morphed with transgender actor and influencer Dylan Mulvaney — days after comparing the two with a bizarre joke during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner .
The 80-year-old president went after Collins, a frequent target of his wrath, during his speech at the Correspondents’ Dinner, which was rescheduled for Friday after a shooting disrupted the original April event.
Trump congratulated Collins for winning the 2026 WHCA award for broadcast for her coverage of Trump’s contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2025, saying that she “shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake, but I didn’t mind.”
He then compared Collins with Mulvaney, who drew national headlines after her 2023 campaign with Bud Light prompted a conservative boycott of the beer brand.
“She never smiles,” Trump said of Collins during his speech Friday. “I said, ‘Kaitlin, 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.”
Trump said he thought Collins had “made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.”
The president compared Collins with Mulvaney again on Sunday, sharing an AI-generated image featuring Collins’ face on Mulvaney’s body. The original image was of Mulvaney during her partnership with Bud Light in 2023, and was widely circulated online at the time during the backlash. Trump did not write anything along with the image and he did not explain the comparison.
Mulvaney, 29, collaborated with Bud Light in 2023, sharing a video to Instagram promoting the brand’s March Madness contest. In the video, Mulvaney – who rose to TikTok stardom while documenting her transition by marking each day “of being a girl” – was dressed like Audrey Hepburn’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany ’s as she filmed herself with multiple cans of Bud Light. The influencer also noted that, in celebration of her 365th day of womanhood, the company sent her a can of Bud Light with her face on it.
Backlash from conservatives followed, with many right-leaning figures boycotting the brand over its campaign with someone who is transgender. The backlash also led to a significant decline in sales for the beer brand.
“Dylan Mulvaney cost Bud Light $35 billion in market cap,” Trump said during the speech. “I wouldn’t want to hire Dylan anytime soon. Think of it, they hired Dylan Mulvaney and their market cap has gone down by $35 billion.”
Trump also called the partnership “the worst commercial ever made.” However, the beer brand never made a commercial with Mulvaney.
The president’s bizarre comments toward Collins during the Correspondents’ Association dinner are just the president’s latest string of attacks against the CNN reporter, who he has repeatedly demanded to smile more when she covers him — and his latest singling out of female journalists, whom he has previously compared to pigs and called stupid.
“We stand by our journalists and the integrity and fair-mindedness with which the CNN team reports the news,” CNN CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement late Friday. “Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting to the public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution.”
Collins wasn’t the only journalist targeted in his lengthy speech Friday. Trump also branded CNN’s Jake Tapper “Fake Tapper,” and claimed the Journal ’s Josh Dawsey, one of the night’s award winners, was “unhireable.”
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