Kaitlan Collins Explains How Trump’s Behavior Differs When He’s Not On Camera

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President Donald Trump is obviously known for complaining about “fake news” and lashing out at journalists. CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins has dealt with Trump’s attacks multiple times now, but she’s certainly not the only reporter who has. And something that many people have noticed is that while Trump often attacks anyone who challenges him, he has gotten particularly angry at the women who have asked him tough questions.

During a discussion for Interview Magazine, Collins spoke to fellow reporter Shawn McCreesh about what it’s like covering the Trump administration. She suggested that although Trump complains about the mainstream media, he also “seeks validation” from it at the same time.

They both said Trump seems to love it when reporters contact him.

Collins has said before that covering Trump is very different from covering “typical” presidents. No arguments there. But her reasoning actually sparked a lot of backlash online, because she said Trump is more “accessible” than other presidents have been in the past.

She elaborated on this during her conversation with McCreesh, explaining how she has called Trump directly at times. McCreesh said that reporters call Trump “all the time,” and “it’s such a crazy situation that the president is so reachable.”

Collins responded, “I have called Trump on occasion for comment on certain stories. I spoke to him when President Biden dropped out of the race, when the FBI was raiding Mar-a-Lago.” She also shed light on how these conversations typically go. “When you call him, he does a lot of the talking and then hangs up pretty abruptly,” she revealed.

McCreesh then said that Trump “loves” these interactions. Collins agreed. “He does love it, but I don’t know that it always yields a ton of news,” she said. “He also doesn’t always answer questions on camera because he feels like he’s already spoken to the media.”

She explained that the way he acts behind the scenes is different from how he acts on camera.

Given how often he lashes out at reporters, takes to Truth Social to complain about different media reports, and criticizes publications that cover him in ways he doesn’t like, the media clearly matters to Trump, even though he dismisses reports he doesn’t like as “fake” and calls journalists “stupid.”

“I do think he’s very much someone who is one way in front of the cameras and another when he’s off the record,” Collins said. “He has always played the media game. He used to impersonate someone and call in and speak positively about himself. I think his base doesn’t always realize he seeks validation from the same mainstream media they all trash.”

And, of course, she also touched on Trump’s comments about how she should smile more.

Previously, when Collins tried to ask Trump a question about Jeffrey Epstein, Trump called her “the worst reporter” and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.” More recently, he referred to Collins as “a young beautiful woman [who] never smiles” and said she has “hatred in her eyes.”

McCreesh asked Collins to share her thoughts on how Trump treats women reporters. “Well, I don’t think the president likes tough questions from anyone, and he’s threatened a lot of our colleagues who are men, like Jonathan Karl and Peter Alexander,” she said. “But I do think that this term, people have started to notice the difference in his reaction when women like Mary Bruce or Nancy Cordes are doing the questioning.”

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Paige Sheffield (she/her)