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Donald Trump is experiencing historic levels of disapproval, including from key demographics that voted for him.
He has even floated the idea of canceling the US’s 250th birthday celebration because his toxic brand is driving away performers and attendees alike.
One of his most recent setbacks has been regarding his nearly $2 billion slush fund intended for his loyalists.
When reporter Kaitlan Collins asked about current plans, Trump rambled before unleashing a misogynistic attack against the journalist for not smiling.
‘She was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?’
Donald Trump frequently levels personal attacks against reporters. When those reporters are women, his lashing out takes on a special tone — commentary on their appearance.
CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins asked about the $1.76 billion fund that he’d hoped to assemble, hopefully for insurrectionists and other loyalists, after looting the Treasury. This scheme has seen setbacks, in and out of court.
At first, Trump almost seemed prepared to answer the question, though he pretended that it did not involve him personally.
He meandered, blurring the line between tactically changing the subject and simply being a doddering old man who is unable to focus.
Then, he launched into a diatribe about CNN and about Collins herself.
“I didn’t make it,” Trump claimed about the fund. “I heard that, I thought it was the greatest thing, because people like you have abused our people so badly.”
As if out of habit, he whined: “The fake news like CNN, like the New York Times, and like others.”
When Collins attempted to point out that Republicans have famously been critical of the idea of a slush fund for Trump cronies, he objected, demanding that Collins: “Be quiet.”
He continued: “You should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?” (This is apparently a reference to her work for The Daily Caller nearly a decade ago, prior to her work for CNN.)
“CNN does such false reporting,” he then claimed about the right-leaning centrist news network. Trump continued on this topic for some time, likening the network to “garbage” and expressing hope that Ellison ownership will do to CNN what is currently unfolding at CBS News.
‘I never see a smile on her face’
Trump also defended the insurgents who, on January 6, 2021, attacked the capitol building in a deadly attack, claiming: “They went there with love.”
Eventually, his malicious stream-of-semi-consciousness rant made it back to Collins, whom he told: “There’s something wrong with you.” Trump got very personal with Collins.
“CNN’s a very corrupt organization,” he accused. “With a corrupt reporter standing right there.”
“She’s a young, beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile on her face; I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes,” Trump claimed.
“She has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted,” he rambled nonsensically.
This is far from the first time that Trump has attacked women in the press over their looks.
There have been other moments where he has complained that Collins “never smiles.” This is not an attack that he levels against men.
Famously, he barked “quiet, piggy” at Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey on Air Force One.
Kaitlan Collins is an award-winning journalist whose very neutral questions seem to elicit this sort of response. It’s not her fault.
