‘You Shouldn’t Be Here!’; Trump Fires Back at CNN Ahead of UN Speech

President Trump seemed surprised on Tuesday morning as, upon walking into the United Nations for his speech at the General Assembly, he was greeted by former conservative reporter-turned-CNN liberal Kaitlan Collins, despite the fact that Trump has banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.

When Collins noted they’re at the United Nations and boasted that most Americans think Iran is winning the war, Trump clapped back that she still “shouldn’t be here.”

CNN News Central played the moment shortly after it occurred, with Collins telling co-host Kate Bolduan that “there’s a slew of other reporters around me — I should note all credentialed by the United Nations, which is why we have access to where we are standing right now, since technically CNN should be serving as the pool representatives with the President today.”

She then cued up the exchange: “[A]s soon as he walked in, he began to address reporters. And as I was asking the President a question about that new CNN polling that shows that two-thirds of Americans do not believe the United States is winning the war with Iran, the President interjected and said this.”

As Trump walked up to the turnstiles at the UN, Collins shouted: “Two-thirds of Americans don’t think the U.S. is winning the war with Iran. When will it end?”

Trump started to make remarks, but he stopped himself to address Collins: “So, it’s an honor to be here. I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here.”

Collins informed him that “the United Nations allowed us in, sir,” but Trump doubled down: “You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”

Both moved on with Collins attempting to reask her question, and Trump trying to speak to the other reporters (and not let the self-centered Collins monopolize time):

COLLINS: Two thirds of Americans don’t think —

TRUMP: But I will tell you —

COLLINS: — that the U.S. is winning the war with Iran.

TRUMP: — it’s an honor to be at the United Nations —

COLLINS: When will it end?

TRUMP: — and we’re making a lot of progress. Our country is doing really, really well. Thank you very much, everybody!

COLLINS: Americans don’t think the United States is winning the war with Iran!

Back live, Collins continued making it about herself before summarizing Trump’s schedule, starting with the address (which CNN would skip completely) (click “expand”):

Now, I should note, Kate of CNN, of course, never said we were not going to cover the President. It was actually the President who tried to stop us from being able to cover him, certainly in the way that we were doing beforehand. Obviously, that’s being fought in the courts. We will continue to cover the president and his speech, and as he meets with world leaders today, just not with a TV camera from one of the five major networks in the room, as he’s going back and forth with these meetings with world leaders, and there are certainly a slew of them on the agenda that could potentially be newsworthy, ranging from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who we just saw going up the escalator shortly before President Trump arrived. Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela is also here, along with many other world leaders, including those gulf leaders, that the President is going to be meeting with on the war in Iran later today, so we’ll be monitoring all of that and obviously covering it as it makes news.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from September 22, click here.