Donald Trump’s bizarre and absurd behavior at the UN on Tuesday wasn’t just a gaffe, not just another mentally unstable moment, but rather a full‑blown showcase of how profoundly he misunderstands the basic mechanics of a free press. Confronted with a routine question from Kaitlan Collins, the kind presidents have fielded for decades without combusting, caused him to fixate not on the substance but on the audacity of a reporter existing in his vicinity. Here is how insanity played out as reported by Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources.
When Donald Trump walked into the UN this morning, he displayed his ignorance about how the American news media works.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was there, along the ropeline at the entrance, along with a pack of other reporters and photographers. Collins wasn’t with the White House TV pool, since Trump’s ban has blocked CNN from fulfilling its pool responsibilities. Instead, she was credentialed by the UN.
As other reporters shouted questions to Trump, Collins asked, “Two thirds of Americans don’t think the US is winning the war with Iran. When will it end?”
Trump pointed at Collins and said, “I’m surprised CNN is here covering me.”
“The United Nations allowed us in, sir,” Collins said.
“You should not be here covering me,” Trump continued. “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Those are three distinct claims, and all three are antithetical to the role of a free press.
For the record, “we never said we were not going to cover the president,” Collins said on air afterward. “We will do our best to cover him each and every day.”
Indeed. In a democracy, journalists will always find ways to ask questions, even if a president doesn’t like it.
“It’s really amazing,” Wolf Blitzer said on air just now: “The United Nations opens up the door to all the news organizations covering the president, who is in New York today for this UN speech, even as the White House bars news organizations from covering the president of the United States.”
His “I’m surprised CNN is here covering me” line wasn’t a quip; it was a confession. He genuinely seems to believe that access to the president is a personal favor he grants, not a democratic obligation he owes. It’s the kind of remark that would get laughed off in any civics classroom, yet here he was, delivering it on the world stage like a man discovering journalism for the first time, or that wedding vows should not be broken by paying a porn actress for sex.
Then came the second claim with the statement, “You should not be here covering me”, which landed with pure petulance. Collins, credentialed by the United Nations because the White House barred her network, was doing exactly what reporters do with authoritarian thugs. They show up and do their job. It was stunning and shameful and shocking and dismaying to watch Trump scold a reporter for performing a constitutional right he swore to uphold. Even more remarkable is that Trump seemed unaware of how nakedly he was advertising his own mental fragility and severe lack of education about our nation’s laws and history.
Wolf Blitzer’s on‑air astonishment captured the moment perfectly when saying the UN flings its doors open to the press while the White House slams its own shut, leaving Trump bewildered that journalism still finds him. It’s absurd. But the press will keep showing up, no matter how many times Trump tries to pretend they shouldn’t.
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