President Donald Trump clashed with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a tariff plan signing at the White House on Thursday, accusing her network of lacking credibility.
As he displayed the signed plan for the press, Collins asked, “Mr. President, you won the White House, in part, because of high inflation. If your tariffs make prices go up—”
“Excuse me,” Trump interrupted. “We haven’t asked you to speak yet.”
He then took questions from other reporters, addressing the conflict in Ukraine. Trump said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants the war to end.
“I believe he wants peace,” Trump stated. “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 followed up, asking, “Do you trust President Putin?”
Trump insisted Russia wants peace and argued the conflict could have been avoided.
“Yeah, I believe he would like to see something happen. I trust him on the subject,” Trump said. “I think it could have happened a long time ago. I think Biden—number one, it shouldn’t have started, but it did. Now all those cities are knocked down, like demolition sites.”
Trump blamed President Biden for the lack of peace talks. “Some sort of negotiation should have been done years ago. This should have never been allowed to happen. I know he’s a friend of yours,” he said, addressing Collins.
“But couldn’t Putin just withdraw—” she began before Trump cut her off.
“He’s a friend of CNN. That’s why nobody watches CNN anymore, because they have no credibility,” Trump said before moving on.