Donald Trump thought his worst night was behind him until one guest told the world what really happened.
The rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner went off without a hiccup, Minus the fallout from Trump’s rocky performance.
An insider gave a firsthand account of how the room reacted to Trump’s rambling speech at the Washington Waldorf Astoria. She painted a more brutal picture than what viewers saw on television.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who has covered Trump for a decade, sat down with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Monday.
She told Stewart she “listened to pretty much all of his speeches for 10 years, with very little exception,” giving her a strong basis for comparing this one to the rest.
What stood out wasn’t the insults Trump directed her way. It was the response of people in the audience that Collins paid closer attention to.
“In the room, I think I was not surprised when he insulted me. That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This was just a bigger venue where it was happening,” Collins said.
“What was most surprising to me was the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his Cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress. It was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks,” she continued.
During his remarks, Trump took direct aim at Collins’ WHCA award.
He told the crowd, “I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it.”
He didn’t stop there.
Trump commented on her appearance, calling her a “young, attractive woman” before adding, “She never smiles. 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.'”
The joke drew dead air instead of laughs, continuing the chilly response that followed much of his set.
The two of them, both the president and reporter, have had their issues in the past.
During the FIFA World Cup draw, she asked him point-blank what he would say to critics who felt his push for a Nobel Peace Prize clashed with his threats to strike Venezuela.
Trump brushed past the substance entirely, launching instead into a familiar boast about ending wars nobody else could end, before pivoting to declare the United States “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
Trump never really answered the question, a pattern Collins has grown used to.
Collins said she deliberately avoids letting Trump’s insults become the story, even when he directs them at her in front of a packed ballroom.
“I just think in those moments, it’s important to put the reminder back on the work, and the question and the non-answers we get,” she told Stewart. “It’s not really about me, and I don’t want it to be about my reaction. I think if you let it become about that, then it becomes a back-and-forth between the two of us.”
The clip, posted to Instagram by The Daily Show, drew a flood of admiring comments.
“She’s so strong and poised, I can imagine it making those old politicians absolutely terrified and intimidated,” one follower wrote. Another added, “Kaitlan Collins has more class in her pinky toe than most people have in their entire body.” A third simply posted, “The most poise and maturity of anyone in politics.”
Several commenters zeroed in on her demeanor.
“See she smiles all the time! Lol,” one wrote, a nod to Trump’s repeated demands that she smile more. Another person joked, “Trump gonna be so mad she smiled at Jon.”
Not everyone spared the men who stayed silent as Trump went after Collins.
“She’s amazing but it still makes me mad that the male reporters say nothing,” one commenter wrote. Another added, summing up the mood beneath the post, “She has so much more class than the president of the United States.”
In the end, Trump had the podium. Collins had the room’s respect — and she didn’t have to say a word to win it.
