Anderson Cooper came to the defense of his CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins on June 3, 2026, after President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering personal attack on the network’s chief White House correspondent during an Oval Office press gathering. The 79-year-old president zeroed in on Collins’ appearance and demeanor, calling her a “corrupt reporter” who “never smiles” and stands with “hatred in her eyes.”
The tirade erupted after Collins pressed Trump on why his administration was abandoning the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization fund, a program previously promoted as a vehicle to compensate political allies including those involved in the Jan. 6 riots. Rather than answer directly, Trump pivoted into a wide-ranging rant about supporters of the Capitol breach having their “lives destroyed,” declaring, “I’m one of them,” a reference to the 2021 FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home, which he dismissed as “a total fake.”
An Outburst Aimed at a Reporter Who Hadn’t Asked
What made the moment especially jarring, Collins later pointed out on her CNN show “The Source,” was that Trump turned on her before she had even posed a question. “And just to note… this first exchange actually occurred before I had yet to ask the president a question,” she told viewers.
Gesturing toward Collins, Trump said, “CNN’s crooked as hell, CNN’s a very corrupt organization, with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles.” He continued by fixating on her appearance, describing her as “a young beautiful woman” who never smiles and stands with “hatred in her eyes.”
Trump snapped at Collins a second time during the same June 3 press briefing when she sought clarification on whether the $1.8 billion fund was “dead” or merely “on hold.” Calling the measure a “beautiful thing,” the president accused the press of abusing “our people” and demanded Collins be quiet when she noted Republicans had also criticized the bill.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told her. “She used to be a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?” The dig was an apparent reference to Collins’ early career at The Daily Caller, the conservative outlet co-founded by Tucker Carlson. Collins, unflappable, replied: “I’m still from Alabama, sir.”
Cooper Says It ‘Doesn’t Happen to Men’
Hours later, on the June 3 broadcast of “Anderson Cooper 360,” the 59-year-old anchor described Trump’s behavior as “completely unwarranted” and accused the president of “verbally attacking” a reporter who had done “nothing to him ahead of it.” Cooper said he wouldn’t ask Collins about the episode directly because she “doesn’t need to be answering questions about this kind of behavior.”
Then Cooper drove the point home, noting that Trump — who turns 80 later this month — had no problem commenting on a female reporter’s physical appearance. “That’s the president of the United States, a nearly 80-year-old man who has no problem commenting on her physical appearance and telling her she needs to smile,” Cooper said, before adding pointedly, “That doesn’t happen to men.”
The veteran anchor noted that Collins had been “standing around with a bunch of non-smiling men” in the Oval Office and was nonetheless singled out. “No one’s ever said that to me in an office setting,” he told viewers.
A Montage of Misogyny
Cooper then aired a montage of clips showing Trump insulting female reporters over the years. Among them was the February 3, 2026, Oval Office exchange in which Trump told Collins, “You don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile” and snapped, “You are the worst reporter. No wonder CNN has no ratings because of people like you.” That earlier confrontation came after Collins pressed him about survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.
The reel also resurfaced the infamous moment Trump told Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey “quiet, piggy” aboard Air Force One, along with several other incidents involving women in the White House press corps.
Journalist Tara Palmeri joined Cooper to break down the pattern. She argued Trump was “objectifying” Collins and “using a misogynistic comment about her appearance to belittle her.” Palmeri added that Collins represents a kind of accountability the president doesn’t tolerate from women: “When Kaitlan Collins is standing there, she is a woman with agency, and she has a lot of power. She represents the people of the United States of America, and she’s holding him to account by asking him questions in the Oval Office.”
Trump, Palmeri argued, is “used to women being around him who are people pleasers, who are smilers, who are secretaries, who are cabinet secretaries.” Cooper agreed, calling it “incredible to watch an entire press corps of men who are not smiling, standing around the president, asking him questions, looking very glum, and it’s the women he focuses on to belittle and besmirch.”
Collins Reacts on ‘Watch What Happens Live’
Collins, who appeared on host Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” on June 2, 2026 — one day before the Oval Office blow-up — was asked whether she might ever smile in front of Trump. “Maybe, I don’t know, right? Never say never, I guess,” she said. “But I mean, I truly think as a reporter, you shouldn’t make it about yourself.”
By the following evening, the question of who was making it about whom seemed to have answered itself in the Oval Office.
