President Trump turned a policy question into a personal swipe at a familiar media target on Wednesday, the Hill reports. While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office about the end of an "anti-weaponization fund" he insisted would have been "a beautiful thing," Trump pivoted to attack CNN, calling it "crooked" and "very corrupt." He then zeroed in on correspondent Kaitlan Collins—who was in the room at the time. He described her as a "corrupt reporter" with "hatred in her eyes," saying that animosity stems from his winning the presidential election, and the ensuing policies of his administration. "You never see a young, beautiful woman who never smiles," he said.
Minutes later, as Collins tried to interject, Trump told her to "be quiet" and remarked that she had once been "a conservative from Alabama" and that she "should be ashamed" of herself, the New York Post reports. He went on to say CNN might improve under new ownership but added, "it's so hard to straighten garbage out," in an apparent reference to CNN parent Warner Bros. being acquired by Paramount, led by Trump ally David Ellison. Collins repeatedly tried to circle back to the question about the fund, to no avail, TMZ reports. The exchange is the latest in a pattern of Trump's public clashes with Collins and other female reporters; he has previously labeled her "stupid and nasty." He's called other female journalists "ugly, both inside and out" and "piggy" (as in, "Quiet, piggy"), drawing criticism from journalists who say the press corps hasn't done enough to push back.
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