WH reporter Kaitlan Collins drowned out by laughter after Trump tears into her and CNN over 'credibility'

WASHINGTON, DC: CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins found herself on the receiving end of one of President Donald Trump’s signature Oval Office smackdowns on Thursday, February 13 — and it's safe to say her colleagues weren’t exactly rushing to her defense.

Instead, the room erupted into laughter as Trump tore into both Collins and her network over their “credibility” (or lack thereof).

Donald Trump vs Kaitlan Collins

The tension exploded when Kaitlan Collins attempted to grill President Donald Trump on his new reciprocal tariff plan. "Mr President, you won the White House, in part, because of high inflation. If your tariffs make prices go up-," she said before being interrupted by the POTUS.

“Excuse me,” Trump snapped, holding up his freshly signed tariff plan for the cameras. “We haven't asked you to speak yet.”

Collins had to wait her turn while Trump gave the floor to other reporters, but things only got worse when she finally got her shot. She asked, “So Americans should prepare for some short-term pain?”

Trump wasn’t having it. “No, you said that. I didn’t say that,” he fired back. “We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows what is going to happen.”

The real fireworks began when the discussion shifted to Russia’s war in Ukraine. One reporter asked Trump if he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin actually wanted peace.

“I believe he wants peace,” Trump said, before adding, “I believe that President Putin—when I spoke to him yesterday—I know him very well. I think he wants peace. Yeah, I think he would tell me if he didn’t. I would like to see peace.” 

Collins fired back with a pointed follow-up, “Do you trust President Putin?”

Instead of answering directly, Trump called her a “friend” of former president Joe Biden and pinned the entire war on him. He also torched CNN’s reputation while he was at it.

“I believe that, uh yeah, I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on the subject. I think he’d like to see something happen. I think it could have happened a long time ago. I think Biden… number one it shouldn’t have started, but he did. And now all those cities are knocked down like demolition sites,” Trump said, steamrolling over Collins’ next attempt to interject, Mediaite reported.

Donald Trump blames Joe Biden for Ukraine war, calls him a friend of CNN

Donald Trump painted a dire picture of the devastation in Ukraine—one that sounded more like a real estate mogul mourning lost architecture than a world leader discussing a war.

“All those beautiful golden towers are knocked down. There’s nothing going to replace them. But much more importantly, you lost millions of people. A lot of soldiers, but you lost millions of people. When they knocked down those cities, and they’re all laying down on the side, they’re laying down in ashes, and all crumbled up concrete, they literally look like a world-class demolition site,” he said.

“And many of them, almost all of them, but many of them. And this should have been done by Biden years ago. This should have never been allowed to happen,” the president said, before throwing a direct jab at Collins, “I know he’s a friend of yours.”

Collins tried to press on, ignoring the personal dig. “But couldn’t Putin just withdraw his—”

But Trump cut her off again and took one last swing at CNN. “He’s a friend of CNN, and that’s why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no credibility," the president declared.

And with that, the entire Oval Office burst into laughter. Trump had the room in the palm of his hand, while Collins was left trying to recover from the onslaught. She attempted to respond, but Trump had already moved on to another reporter by then.