Donald Trump’s increasingly personal feud with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins escalated again late Tuesday night.
Hours after confronting her at the United Nations, the president returned to Truth Social with a pair of posts attacking both Collins and CNN.
One was a lengthy personal broadside.
The other was a bizarre comedy video showing a male creator putting on a blond wig, red dress and lipstick before pretending to be a female CNN reporter.
Trump shared both shortly before midnight.
The video, titled “Day in the life of a CNN Reporter,” was created by comedian and social-media personality Patrick W. Cutler.
In it, Cutler dresses up before declaring that his fictional CNN character spends the day making up stories about Trump.
“My life as someone who tells lies all day long,” the clip begins.
Cutler then jokes about putting on his “fake news outfits” and preparing to “bash Trump 24/7.”
There is no indication in the video that Cutler was specifically impersonating Collins.
But Trump posted it in the middle of a highly public fight with the CNN anchor, making the timing impossible to ignore.
The confrontation began earlier Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly.
Collins asked Trump about the Iran war and cited CNN polling showing that many Americans did not believe the United States was winning the conflict.
Trump responded by questioning why she was there at all.
“I am surprised that CNN is here covering me,” he told her.
“You should not be here covering me.”
Collins immediately replied: “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.”
That distinction is central to the dispute.
Trump recently banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from White House grounds.
But that restriction does not extend to the United Nations, which controls its own media accreditation.
Reuters reported that journalists from all three banned outlets continued covering Trump’s U.N. appearances using credentials issued by the international organization.
Trump also appeared to misunderstand another part of the ongoing media standoff.
He suggested CNN had previously said it would stop covering him.
CNN had made no such announcement.
Instead, the major television networks jointly suspended participation in the White House television pool after the administration prevented CNN from fulfilling its scheduled pool assignment.
That did not mean CNN stopped reporting on Trump.
“The president himself there was saying something that CNN has never asserted about not covering him,” Collins later said on CNN.
“We’ve never said that.”
She added that Trump was attempting to dictate how the network covered him, while CNN’s responsibility remained to report on the presidency.
Hours later, Trump returned to the subject.
In his late-night Truth Social post, he called Collins a “Third Rate ‘Reporter’” and a “truly unhappy person.”
He accused her of having a “TRUMP addiction” and described CNN and MS NOW in similarly hostile language.
The language continued a long-running pattern.
Trump has repeatedly singled Collins out during exchanges with reporters, sometimes criticizing her questions and sometimes attacking her personally.
Earlier this year, he called her “the worst reporter” and remarked that he rarely saw her smile.
At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in July, he also made a joke comparing her appearance to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The latest episode comes during an especially intense confrontation between Trump and the press.
On Sept. 18, he announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from White House grounds, accusing the organizations of publishing “fiction and lies.”
The administration subsequently deactivated their credentials.
The three news organizations responded by filing a federal lawsuit, arguing that the ban violates the First Amendment and that they were punished because Trump objected to their reporting.
The case is now before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly.
The outlets are seeking emergency relief restoring their access.
Meanwhile, the dispute has disrupted one of the most basic mechanisms of presidential press coverage.
CNN had been scheduled to operate the White House television pool for Trump’s trip to the United Nations.
When the administration blocked CNN from performing that role, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News joined CNN in suspending their participation rather than supplying a replacement crew.
That produced an unusual situation.
Trump traveled to one of the world’s biggest diplomatic gatherings without the normal independent television pool covering every presidential movement.
CNN reporters, however, were still able to enter the United Nations independently.
That was exactly how Collins ended up standing in front of Trump on Tuesday.
The exchange appeared to highlight the limits of the White House ban.
Trump can control who enters secure White House grounds.
He cannot unilaterally control who receives media credentials from the United Nations.
Collins’ presence therefore became a very public reminder that CNN had not disappeared from the president’s orbit.
If anything, the dispute appears to have intensified coverage of the confrontation.
Trump’s late-night posts then pushed the story into yet another news cycle.
The Cutler video added an especially unusual element.
Cutler is primarily known for comedy and sports-related content and has previously used the same visual gag — putting on a wig and dress — in a joke about Dallas Cowboys fans.
For the CNN version, he simply changed the audio and subject.
Trump then elevated it from social-media comedy to presidential messaging by sharing it with his millions of followers.
That decision came only hours after Collins publicly challenged Trump’s claim that CNN had stopped covering him.
She had also discussed reporting that Trump’s own aide Natalie Harp showed him critical media coverage shortly before he decided to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
CNN reported that Harp presented Trump with a graphic showing unfavorable Politico coverage, which allegedly angered him before the ban was announced.
The White House has defended the broader media restrictions by arguing that Trump is targeting what he considers dishonest reporting rather than attacking press freedom.
The banned outlets reject that distinction.
Their lawsuit argues that a president cannot revoke press access simply because he dislikes the content of a newsroom’s reporting.
That constitutional question will be decided in court.
The Collins feud, however, is playing out much more publicly.
A question at the United Nations became a presidential confrontation.
The confrontation became a CNN segment.
The segment became a midnight Truth Social attack.
And then the president added a man in a blond wig and red dress to the fight.
Whatever happens next in court, Trump’s battle with CNN has clearly moved well beyond a disagreement over press credentials.
