Topics: News, US News, Donald Trump, Social Media, Truth Social
A journalist who Donald Trump called 'stupid' and 'nasty' has issued a scathing response after being targeted by the president.
Trump's behavior around journalists, in particular female journalists, has been under intense scrutiny after he told a female reporter 'quiet piggy' when she asked him a question.
Since then, the US president has seen another controversial episode with the media after calling a female CNN reporter 'nasty' and 'stupid'.
Kaitlan Collins is CNN's White House correspondent, as well as hosting The Source with Kaitlan Collins, and she directed a question to the president during a round of questions, asking about his ongoing renovations of the White House.
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These include building a large ballroom, which the president claims is privately funded.
After the conference, Trump took to social media on 6 December in a rant about Collins' question, including misspelling her name.
He wrote on Truth Social: “Caitlin Collin's of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago.
“I said because it is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing.”
Trump went on to claim that the project is 'under budget and ahead of schedule' and 'much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned'.
He went on to say that the ballroom, which saw a historic wing of the White House demolished, has 'no taxpayer dollars involved' and is 'fully paid for by private donations'.
He then went on a rant, lashing out at 'FAKE NEWS CNN'.
Responding to the pressure on their reporter, a CNN spokesperson said: 'Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional journalist, reporting every day from the White House and the field with real depth and tenacity.
'She skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day, which audiences around the world know they can trust.'
Since then, Collins has responded on her Instagram Stories, sharing a screenshot of Trump's post with the added caption: “Technically my question was about Venezuela."
This was drawing attention to the bombing of a vessel off the coast of Venezuela, in which over 80 people were killed.
The strikes have been widely condemned, especially the allegation of a 'double tap' strike, where a second strike is carried out to deliberately target survivors of the first, which is considered a war crime under international law.
Trump's administration has denied any breach of international law during the attacks.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict."
