CNN’s Kailtan Collins: MAGA Doesn’t Realize Trump ‘Seeks Validation’ From the Same Media They Trash

(Photo Credit: CNN)

CNN star Kaitlan Collins said President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base doesn’t realize he “seeks validation” from the same mainstream media outlets he and MAGA all deride as “fake news.”

Collins gave her take on Trump’s relationship with the press for a piece she did with Interview Magazine on Tuesday.

“I do think he’s very much someone who is one way in front of the cameras and another when he’s off the record. He has always played the media game,” Collins said about Trump. “He used to impersonate someone and call in and speak positively about himself. I think his base doesn’t always realize he seeks validation from the same mainstream media they all trash.”

She then told her interviewer, The New York Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh, that should be obvious if you look at who he speaks to.

“Look at who he’s calling about the war. He’s calling mainstream reporters,” Collins said.

McCreesh then asked, “Do you think he’s back to his old insecurities about the coverage?”

Collins answered:

I think he’s always felt the same about coverage, and I think there’s a reason he calls reporters or answers their calls. He really believes he’s his own best spokesperson. The other day he joked—and I say joked because he kind of laughed, but I’m still not sure—about why he gets such bad press coverage.

He said, “Maybe it’s because of my people.” Every press secretary he’s ever had, from Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah [Huckabee] Sanders to Sean Spicer and Stephanie Grisham, has dealt with this. There is always the risk he’ll say something that undermines what they’ve said.

The Interview story ran a week after Trump went scorched earth on Collins at the White House on live TV.

“[Collins] never smiles. You never-, she’s a young, beautiful woman. Never smiles, I never see a smile off her face, I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes,” Trump said. “She has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted.”

The Interview interview happened on April 22, so McCreesh did not get her reaction to that wild moment.

She did reference another time Trump bashed her for not smiling enough earlier this year.

“I remember looking at the Republican lawmakers who were in the room standing behind him and thinking—” Collins started to say, when McCreesh jumped in added “They know this is whack.”

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