Kaitlan Collins

Kaitlan Collins is an American journalist known for her meteoric rise from an intern at Tucker Carlson’s right-wing news site, The Daily Caller, to White House correspondent and prime-time anchor for CNN less than a decade later. Along the way, she has made her own headlines for fiery exchanges with U.S. Pres. Donald Trump.

Early life

Collins grew up in the rural town of Prattville, Alabama, outside Montgomery. She had what she described in a 2021 interview as an “apolitical upbringing,” adding that she never heard her parents discuss politics. She attended college at the University of Alabama, initially studying chemistry before changing majors to journalism and political science.

Early career

After graduation, Collins moved to Washington, D.C., for an internship with The Daily Caller, doing entertainment coverage. She said she was unaware of the political leanings of the website when she took the job, adding, “I needed a job…and you have to start somewhere.”

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Collins’s star rose quickly, and with the inauguration of Trump in 2017, she became the website’s White House correspondent at 24 years old. She caught the attention of CNN producers, and she made a number of appearances on the network before being hired to its White House team later that year.

CNN rise and controversy

Collins had been on the White House beat for CNN for about a year when she publicly incurred the wrath of the Trump administration. During a July 2018 Oval Office meeting, Collins asked Trump a number of questions about his former attorney Michael Cohen as well as Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. The president did not answer, but after the event, the White House press office told Collins she was not welcome at a Rose Garden event later that day.

The White House ban was greeted with near-universal outcry from members of the White House press corps. Peter Baker, veteran chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, called the move “outrageous,” and Fox News’s president issued a statement saying, “We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press.”

Collins, who was also called an “activist” by Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, was undeterred by the White House stonewalling. She continued to travel with the president on the campaign trail and on foreign trips, and in 2021 the network promoted her to chief White House correspondent. At 28 she was the youngest person to hold that title for the network.

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In 2022 she was named to the role of coanchor of CNN This Morning, her first full-time foray into the world of anchoring while still maintaining her ability to do on-the-road reporting. The next year she was given a high-profile role of serving as moderator of a CNN town hall with Trump. Although the network was criticized for giving Trump more than an hour of airtime, Collins was largely credited with trying to hold the former president to account. During one exchange, he called her “a nasty person.”

Shortly after the town hall, Collins was elevated to hosting the 9 pm hour of CNN, following Anderson Cooper 360. It was seen as a vote of confidence for a journalist who had won the respect of colleagues for her tenacious interviewing and reporting skills. The Source with Kaitlan Collins debuted on July 10, 2023, and made Collins one of the network’s most visible anchors. Collins had stopped covering the White House in 2022 when she moved to New York for the morning anchor role, but she took up the mantle again in November 2024, moving back to Washington to allow her to manage reporting and anchoring responsibilities.

The resumption of her role as chief White House correspondent again put Collins in Trump’s crosshairs. In 2026, when she asked the president a question about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the release of the Epstein files, Trump called her “the worst reporter,” going on to say, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”

Two weeks after the incident Collins addressed the exchange during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show, saying:

I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that you shouldn’t smile when you’re asking questions about a sex trafficker and sexual assault victims.

Trump again went after Collins during the rescheduled White House Correspondents Dinner in July, comparing her to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and repeating the trope about her not smiling. CNN subsequently issued a statement of support for Collins.