Trump Unloads on CNN Reporter on White House Lawn for Claiming He Failed Campaign Promise
Move over, Jim Acosta — another CNN reporter is gunning for your title of least-likable White House correspondent.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins once again found herself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump after pushing him with her line of questioning about funding a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border during a news conference Friday in the White House Rose Garden.
“You ran your campaign promising supporters that Mexico is going to pay for the wall …” Collins began.
“Here we go again,” Trump immediately retorted. The president was right.
“… and that the wall was going to be made of concrete. You just said earlier that the wall could be made of steel,” she continued, putting a bizarre emphasis on the construction material for the border wall. “And right now our government is shut down over a demand from your administration that the American taxpayer pay for the wall.”
“So how can you say you’re not failing on that promise to your supporters?” she asked, clearly trying to needle the president.
Trump, never one to back down from a confrontation, responded with a healthy dose of sarcasm — and facts.
“A very nice question so beautifully asked, even though I just answered it,” he said.
Trump then explained to Collins how the USMCA trade deal would help pay for the wall.
“I just told you that we just made a trade deal, and we will take in billions and billions of dollars, far more than the cost of the wall,” he said. “The wall is peanuts compared to what the value of this trade deal is to the United States.”
Trump then noted the irrelevance of the materials used to build the wall, saying, “As far as concrete, I said I was going to build a wall. I never said, ‘I’m going to build a concrete –.’ I said I’m going to build a wall.”
He then continued, in blistering fashion, “Just so you know — because I know you’re not in the construction business, you don’t understand something — we now have a great steel business that’s rebuilt in the United States. Steel is stronger than concrete. If I build this wall or fence or anything that Democrats need to call it — because I’m not into names, I’m into production, I’m into something that works — if I build a steel wall rather than a concrete wall, it will actually be stronger than concrete.
“Steel is stronger than concrete, OK? You can check it out.”
Trump went on to say he would have the wall built by the steel companies in our country, which he said have “become powerful over the past two years because of me and because of our trade policies.”
This is hardly the first time that Collins had drawn the ire of the White House.
Trump and the White House banned Collins after she had asked “inappropriate” questions back in July. Collins also gained notoriety in October for pushing an absurd narrative about Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation.
One thing is clear: This is a two-person race to the bottom between Collins and Acosta. And regardless of who wins, the American people lose.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
