CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Claps Back at Donald Trump Swipe on U.N. Press Line

President Donald Trump is currently attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, just days after he had CNN, MS NOW, and Politico banned from the White House press pool.

Despite the ban on certain outlets at the White House, Trump couldn’t prevent those journalists from reporting on his U.N. appearance on Tuesday (September 22), leading to an intense exchange between him and CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins. While the president has had various run-ins with Collins on the press lines, there seemed to be a bit of confusion on his end regarding coverage of the current assembly, which involves various nations from across the globe.

Before Trump spoke to CNN’s Collins, she questioned, “Two-thirds of Americans don’t think the U.S. is winning the war with Iran; when will it end?”

Trump chose to ignore the question and addressed the crowd of reporters ahead of his speech at the U.N., saying, “So, it’s an honor to be here. I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me…”

Trump: “I’m surprised CNN is here is covering me. You shouldn’t be here.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.” pic.twitter.com/fMrWCnABEO

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 22, 2026

The dig didn’t linger too long before Collins chimed in, clapping back with, “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.”

“You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t gonna cover me; you shouldn’t be covering me,” he responded, looking over to others in the press line as Melania Trump stood in the background.

When Collins reiterated her original question about Iran, Trump ultimately responded with, “We’re making a lot of progress; our country is doing really, really well.”

The ban came up on Monday, September 21, as well, when Trump visited Gracie Mansion to appear alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani. During that press conference, Mamdani was asked if he’d discussed the banning of press with Trump, and the mayor responded, “I told the president that we’re gonna have all the members of the press here on the lawn and that is something that I believe in.”

When Mamdani finished speaking, Trump stepped up to the microphone and said, waving a hand over the crowd, “It’s interesting because they said they were gonna boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn’t very worried about that.”

Several news outlets chose to boycott the White House press pool in solidarity with the banned outlets, which was notable during Trump’s speech in Washington hours before his arrival in New York, as you can see here, as the lack of microphones from reporters rendered the speech inaudible.