CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Maggie Haberman Roast Trump Over Shutdown Threat

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman roasted ex-President Donald Trump over his meddling in the government shutdown showdown.

Trump injected himself into the fight over spending legislation to avoid shutting the government down by writing on his Truth Social account:

A very important deadline is approaching at the end of the month. Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State. This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots. They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman and Collins mocked the idea that Trump cares anything about government spending or debt rather than a raft of unrelated issues:

COLLINS: I mean, what do you make of, Maggie, Trump getting involved in this, weighing in, late last night, saying, Republicans should not pass this short-term bill, which Kevin McCarthy, and they were trying to get Republicans behind? I mean, he has this hope that it would affect his investigations. But, as the Congressman made clear, it would not.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: No, it’s not going to. And, I think, realistically, Donald Trump has been told that by advisers. I think he is aware that this is the case.

He has repeatedly done things that make life a little more complicated, for Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy at various points has done things that have upset present former President, Trump, including not endorsing him, which we’re aware of.

And so, I don’t think it’s a surprise that he is twisting the knife here. I think that Trump is much more aligned, with these members, who as Alyssa correctly says, are talking about fiscal responsibility, and some of them clearly believe it, but many of them are talking about other things.

And this is a little different, from some of the early days of, say, The Tea Party, when that first wave came in, when it really was much more about spending.

COLLINS: Yes.

HABERMAN: It has now become about all kinds of other things. And Trump cares about all kinds of other things. Spending is sort of theoretical.

COLLINS: Yes, it’s certainly not. He’s not obsessed with the debt.

HABERMAN: He’s not a fiscal conservative, shall we say.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.