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Trump bombs in WHCD return and then unleashes on CNN's Kaitlan Collins and media in jaw-dropping hour-long rant

The Independent (UK) · back to the audit
President Donald Trump used a rambling, roughly hour-long speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Friday to savage members of the media and make a series of crude, often poorly received jokes about critics and Democrats. At one point, the president openly complained about the 'frickin' stupid speech that they wrote' for him to offer the crowd, after a bizarre sex joke about stairs didn't earn many laughs. Despite ending his routine by claiming he was the 'most open and transparent' president in history who had 'tremendous respect' for journalists, the Republican mostly railed against the gathered members of the Washington press corps. He kicked things off by jokingly complaining about a group of Wall Street Journal reporters who won awards at the dinner for their coverage of the Trump-Epstein saga, reporting that inspired the president to launch an unsuccessful $10 billion defamation suit last year. 'All these awards,' Trump said. 'Do I have a say?' The president reserved the worst of his ire for CNN's Kaitlan Collins, repeating his frequent demand that she 'smile' more when she covers him. The comments were the latest in President Trump's long history of singling out female journalists, whom he has previously compared to pigs and called stupid. President Trump attacked multiple journalists over the course of the speech, branding CNN's Jake Tapper 'Fake Tapper,' while claiming the Journal's Josh Dawsey, one of the night's award winners, was 'unhireable.'