EXCLUSIVE — A potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate is calling on President Donald Trump to apologize to CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins for comparing the news anchor to transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“President Trump should apologize to Kaitlan Collins specifically as she is doing her job and apologize to all the journalists that he insults, degrades, and belittles,” former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel told the Washington Examiner.
Emanuel, who also served as mayor of Chicago and as chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, is a paid contributor at CNN.
Trump appeared unrepentant over the weekend, reposting AI-generated photographs combining images of Collins and Mulvaney, whose involvement in a Bud Light March Madness Instagram promotion in 2023 prompted conservatives to boycott the brand and a bomb threat against an Anheuser-Busch factory in Los Angeles.
CNN issued a statement during Trump’s remarks at the second White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which was held almost three months after the first dinner was scuttled when a gunman was stopped by security trying to storm the ballroom.
“She reports every day from the White House and the field with real strength and tenacity and skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day,” CNN wrote. “We stand by her to the fullest extent.”
During his speech, Trump criticized Collins after earlier congratulating her on her award, which she received for reporting on the confrontational White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year.
“She’s a young, attractive woman,” Trump said. “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.”
“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,” he added. “But then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.”
CNN is reportedly reconsidering its own involvement in the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner next year, with Trump already confirming his attendance at the event.
Anheuser-Busch lost $1.4 billion in beer sales after the backlash, in addition to $27 billion of its value and half of its U.S. market share.