Trump Rages at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in Midnight Rant: She Has ‘Trump Addiction’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night was still extremely irate that CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins tried to ask him a question at the United Nations — after he had banned CNN (and MS NOW and Politico) from White House coverage.
In a post on his Truth Social platform just before midnight Tuesday, Trump accused the CNN anchor of having a “‘TRUMP’ addiction.”
The U.S. president wrote: “All of the SLEAZEBAGS, like Third Rate ‘Reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins, of Fake News CNN, a truly unhappy person, said they weren’t going to be covering me. Then why were they ranting and raving like Lunatics, in the Press Area, at the United Nations? Why was she there? She’s got a ‘TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC. They’re all sick, treasonous, and demented! The ‘good news’ is that they have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Collins was at the UN to cover the president because that’s part of her job as CNN’s chief White House correspondent.
On Tuesday morning, Collins asked the president a question about Americans’ sentiment that the U.S. is not winning the war with Iran, based on new CNN polling numbers. The exchange occurred outside UN headquarters in New York, prior to Trump’s remarks to the general assembly. When Trump noticed Collins, he said, “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here!” Collins replied, “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.”
Trump chastised Collins: “You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Trump announced last Friday (Sept. 18) that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico “effective immediately” from the White House because, as he has claimed hundreds of times before about media outlets he doesn’t like, they are “fake news.”
On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued Trump and three White House officials over his ban, alleging it violates the First Amendment and “brazenly discriminates based on editorial viewpoint.” Also Monday, in response to Trump’s ban of the news outlets, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News — which alongside CNN provide the White House TV pool coverage — announced they were suspending coverage of the president at events because of his ban on the news outlets.
The White House TV pool consortium, which is currently chaired by Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, continued to be suspended Wednesday (when NBC News was scheduled to be the pooler).
In a court filing late Tuesday, the White House — represented by the Justice Department lawyers — responded to the lawsuit, defending the president’s ban of the news orgs. “Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,” the administration’s filing said. It also claimed that the denial of access is a “preliminary matter” and the news organizations can contest the decision until Friday.
Trump’s reference to the “totally disloyal Judge” in the case was to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was nominated to the post in 2017 by Trump. Kelly will preside over an emergency hearing Wednesday to consider the media orgs’ request for a temporary restraining order to force the White House to reinstate their access.
The White House’s filing alleged CNN, MS NOW and Politico “exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”
As an example of CNN’s alleged infractions, the White House filing cited a Jan. 16, 2026, report that “disclosed ‘top-secret’ construction details related to the East Wing bunker, which is designed to protect the President in times of crisis or national security emergency.” Regarding MS NOW, the filing cited a June 8 story citing an anonymous White House official saying that Trump “underestimated the willingness of Iran to resume conflict.” (The filing did not specifically dispute the accuracy of the reports.)
The filing also said a Politico Playbook report in September 2026, headlined “‘The vibes are very bad’ in Texas,” had “relied on unnamed sources to paint the Republican midterm convention in Dallas as a disaster.” According to the White House, citing a Breitbart News article that also attributed its reporting to anonymous sources, “Media reporting showed that the convention had over 100 million live stream views.”
