President Donald Trump turned a joke at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins’ expense into a two-day spectacle, first comparing her to transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney, and then following it with an AI-generated Bud Light meme. Trump made the joke during his remarks at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday night. After Collins appeared to respond and CNN issued a statement defending her, the president posted an image Sunday that drove the same joke home.
The exchange began while Collins was being recognized for her reporting on Trump’s tense Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The event was held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., where Collins received an award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure. Trump used the opportunity to mock the award, take another shot at CNN, mock Collins’ appearance, and tell her that she should smile more.
Trump then landed the Bud Light joke. He said he had wanted to congratulate Collins for her major commercial with the beer company, only to learn that the person in the advertisement was actually Mulvaney. The comparison referred to Mulvaney’s 2023 promotional partnership with Bud Light, which sparked a major conservative boycott and became one of the most widely discussed corporate controversies of the year.
As TMZ reported, Trump didn’t just leave the joke at the dinner. On Sunday, he posted an AI-generated image showing Collins dressed in black, wearing gloves, smiling, and holding a Bud Light can. Several additional cans were placed in front of her, making the image an obvious recreation of the Mulvaney promotion that set off the original backlash.
The meme gave the joke a second round of attention after Collins appeared to respond through an Instagram post. She shared photographs from the dinner with longtime CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and included the Eleanor Roosevelt line, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Collins did not directly name Trump, but the timing of the post and her additional comments about asking powerful people uncomfortable questions pointed back to the president’s remarks.
CNN also defended its chief White House correspondent. A network spokesperson described Collins as an “exceptional, trusted journalist” and praised her knowledge, tenacity, and work from both the White House and the anchor desk. The statement said CNN stood behind her “to the fullest extent.”
See the hilarious Trump post here:
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The Mulvaney controversy began in 2023 after Bud Light sent personalized cans to the social-media personality as part of a promotional campaign. The move triggered a sustained boycott and produced viral responses from figures including Kid Rock, who filmed himself shooting cases of the beer. The episode quickly became shorthand for the backlash companies can face after inserting their brands into divisive political and cultural disputes.
Trump’s AI image seemingly put Collins and the CNN in a bit of an ideological bind, as some commenters on X were quick to point out. One account posted “Democrats: Dylan Mulvaney is a beautiful woman. Trump: Kaitlan Collins looks like Dylan Mulvaney. Democrats: How dare Trump compare Kaitlan Collins to an ugly man!” with another commenting, “What’s the problem- I thought you considered both to be ‘beautiful women’?”