What to Know
President Donald Trump recently lashed out at Kaitlan Collins again, and The View co-host Sunny Hostin thinks another reporter should’ve intervened. Trump attacked Collins during a White House press briefing on Wednesday, June 3, when he was complaining about CNN. He once again tried to claim that the CNN journalist never smiles and launched into a whole rant against her.
When the tense interaction came up on an episode of The View, Hostin mentioned how sexist Trump’s comments were, given that men are never told they don’t smile enough.
This time, Trump also tried to say that Collins has “hatred in her eyes.”
TRUMP: Be quiet. You should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative from Alabama.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2026
KAITLAN COLLINS: I'm still from Alabama. pic.twitter.com/Nivb3smUQc
It’s not the first time that Trump has lashed out at Collins and complained that she supposedly never smiles. The first time he complained about her not smiling, she was trying to ask him a question about sexual assault survivors. This time, Collins had not even asked a question when Trump started ranting about how she’s “a corrupt reporter.”
“CNN’s a very corrupt organization, with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles,” he said, referring to Collins. “She never… a young beautiful woman [who] never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”
Trump continued, “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 then addressed Collins directly and said, “You should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative — she was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?” At that point, Collins chimed in to say, “I’m still from Alabama.”
‘The View’ co-hosts praised Collins for how she handled this situation.
Whoopi Goldberg noted, “She handled herself very well. But I have to question, what is his problem? I mean, what is his problem with women?” For Hostin, the answer was pretty clear. “He’s a misogynist, and I think we all know that,” she responded.
She then addressed the double standard, which she, like many other women, has also dealt with before. “Men are never asked to smile,” Hostin said. “But in my career, when I was practicing law, I was often told, ‘You should smile more.’ Which is an unbelievable thing.”
Hostin would’ve liked to see other reporters say something in that moment, but her co-hosts disagreed.
The co-hosts all had an issue with the way Trump spoke to Collins. But Hostin felt like someone should’ve confronted Trump, while co-host Kara Swisher argued that it’s better not to react in that particular situation.
“I also take a bit of umbrage at the other reporters there because – by the way, the other reporters weren’t smiling,” Hostin said. “The men weren’t smiling, and he didn’t mention that. But I do feel that when one of your colleagues is attacked in that way, a follow-up question or a statement – someone in the room, maybe one of the men – should have said, ‘Sir, you should not speak to her that way.’ I would have liked to have seen that.”
Swisher disagreed because she thinks Trump would actually benefit from that. “I’m going to disagree with you because I think the job of reporters is not to react to that kind of nonsense, right?” she said. “The whole thing is, when you’re a reporter, the story shouldn’t be about you.”
She admitted that it can be “really hard,” but explained, “To react is where you lose in that game.” Swisher thought Collins “handled it well.”
“What he’s saying is about him and not her,” she added. “…The minute you say something, you get dragged into it in a way that he benefits and you don’t.” Hostin pushed back on this a bit, asking, “What about the other reporters?” But Swisher believes that “nobody should say anything.”
Collins didn’t take the bait. The debate about whether anyone else should have is still going.
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