President Donald Trump lit into CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comparing her to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a jab that instantly set off the media class.
Trump mocked Collins during his Friday night remarks, then doubled down Sunday on Truth Social by sharing an altered image of Collins’ face placed on Mulvaney’s body from the Bud Light ad that sparked a massive conservative boycott in 2023.
The Bud Light campaign with Mulvaney became one of the biggest corporate cautionary tales of the culture war, triggering nationwide backlash and sending the beer brand into a long sales slump.
Trump used that controversy to take another shot at Collins, one of his most familiar sparring partners in the White House press corps.
‘I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,’ Trump said of Collins.
‘But then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.’
Collins responded after Trump’s first attack by highlighting an award she received at the dinner from CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer.
‘The second best part of last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was receiving an award from my friend and mentor, @wolfblitzer.’
She then added, ‘the first was reminding everyone why the First Amendment—and asking uncomfortable questions that people in power don’t like—matters,’ an apparent swipe at Trump.
🚨 LMAO!! President Trump just dropped this GEM of Kaitlan Collins as Dylan Mulvaney from the woke Bud Light ad — after his HILARIOUS White House Correspondents Dinner roast
Funniest president ever 😭
They can’t get mad at him for comparing her to a man pretending to be a… pic.twitter.com/qLWdsiIA5q
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 26, 2026
Trump and Collins have clashed for years during press conferences, interviews and Oval Office exchanges.
The latest round came after Collins recently pressed Trump about his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, prompting the president to tell her she should smile more.
The exchange went viral and later landed Collins on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
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The 33-year-old anchor recalled Trump taunting her in the Oval Office after she asked what he would say to Epstein’s survivors.
‘You know she’s a young woman,’ the president told a room of Republican lawmakers and reporters, then turned to Collins directly: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.’
Kaitlan Collins told Colbert she was not surprised by the attack, arguing Trump often tries to deflect from uncomfortable questions.
‘I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that you shouldn’t smile when you’re asking questions about a sex trafficker and sexual assault victims,’ she told Colbert.
She said she smiles, just ‘when it’s appropriate.’
Collins also said Trump has resorted to name-calling before when he wants to avoid questions about Epstein.
‘He is someone who is often politically savvy or tied in with what his base wants. In that moment, I was thinking if he had said that in response to a different question, I think it would have had a different reaction,’ Collins explained at the time.
Mulvaney became a household name on the right after the Bud Light partnership in April 2023, when the beer company sent the influencer a custom can as part of a marketing promotion.
The stunt detonated a conservative boycott, battered Bud Light’s image and became a warning to corporations that customers do not always want politics mixed into their products.
Mulvaney has been public about facial feminization surgery and later starred in the autobiographical Off-Broadway show “The Least Problematic Woman in the World” in 2025.
Trump’s attack landed during the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held at the Waldorf Astoria Washington, D.C., after the April event was postponed following another assassination attempt against him.
The president used the night to roast journalists, political enemies and media figures who have spent years hammering him while presenting themselves as neutral referees.
For Collins and CNN, the joke was another ugly Trump attack.
For Donald Trump’s supporters, it was a reminder that the president still knows exactly how to hit the liberal media where it hurts.
Collins wanted the night to be about the First Amendment and tough questions.
Trump made it about CNN, Bud Light and a culture-war punchline the left still has not figured out how to escape.
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