Trump's Nasty Attack On Kaitlan Collins Just Backfired In His Face

If there's one thing you can always count on Trump to do, it's digging his own hole deeper.
Trump's Nasty Attack On Kaitlan Collins Just Backfired In His Face
Credit: Flickr/The White House (official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian),United States Government work
By Andrea Thompson — September 23, 2026

As per usual, Donald Trump has once again made things worse for himself due to his complete and total inability to shut up.

Late last week, the US President finally leaned full force into his dictator era when he implemented a total White House ban on CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, calling the outlets "fake news," and promising in his Truth Social announcement that more bans on more media outlets would soon follow -- as he almost simultaneously launched his new Trump TV, which is nothing short of state-run media that would make Vladimir Putin proud.

His media ban immediately and spectacularly blew up in his face from multiple directions, as the vast majority of all mainstream media outlets in the country joined forces in an unprecedented boycott against coverage of the president, leading to an embarrassing incident during Trump's ribbon-cutting ceremony for his new helipad, where he attempted to speak. Still, no microphones were there to capture the audio. Meanwhile, the three outlets targeted by his ban have launched a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, and legal experts have already noted that the outlets are all but guaranteed to prevail if the president doesn't lift the ban.

But, in true Trump fashion, the president is only digging his heels in deeper, even at his own expense.

Yesterday afternoon, while in New York to address the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Trump spotted CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who he has a long-running history of openly sparring with, and proceeded to publicly chastise her for being present at the event, despite his ban.

"I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me," the president said to Collins. "You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me."

Collins had to explain to the US president that the UN allowed CNN into the event, but he continued to double down, stating again, "You should not be here. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me. You shouldn't be covering me."

He then walked away from the press like a petulant toddler without answering her question regarding his ongoing war with Iran.

It was a typical Trump temper tantrum if I've ever seen one, and one that he's likely now wishing he hadn't thrown, as CNN and MS NOW have now used the president's own words against him to boost their lawsuit further.

As the Trump White House failed to file its response to the lawsuit by the deadline, attorneys for CNN and MS NOW added the president's nasty attack against Kaitlan Collins to the court record as an exhibit to Trump-appointed US District Judge Timothy Kelly.

But the legal team didn't stop there. MS NOW legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher confirmed that the lawyers for CNN and MS NOW, who are also representing POLITICO in the suit, additionally informed Judge Kelly of a D.C. Circuit Court ruling that "held the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol are a 'nonpublic forum' -- much like the White House -- and therefore any press restrictions must be 'viewpoint neutral.'"

That D.C. Circuit Court ruling regarding the East Steps was handed down by a Trump-appointed judge and backed by an appointee of George H.W. Bush.

Gallagher wrote that "the lawyers are using this ruling as additional evidence in support of the TRO ahead of tomorrow's hearing," referring to the temporary restraining order the legal team is currently seeking to block Donald Trump's ban.

Meanwhile, NewsNation's White House correspondent Kellie Meyer confirmed that the Trump White House has no primary TV pool listed for today. Still, the secondary pool is slated to be led by Lindell TV, the media outlet owned by election-denying MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, who just lost his Republican primary for Minnesota governor.

At this point, the legal team for these media outlets could probably kick back and relax; the president will end up doing their work for them.

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