CNN's Kaitlan Collins describes what it's like reporting on Trump's presidency

CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins told Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” that President Trump has little tolerance for reporters who challenge him directly. “He surrounds himself with people who praise him or laugh at his jokes, and when he is confronted with someone who is asking a challenging question, he doesn’t like it,” Ms. Collins said. She offered her views on reporting inside the Oval Office after Mr. Trump made some verbal jabs at her during Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner. At the dinner, Ms. Collins received an award for her coverage of an Oval Office confrontation between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Calling the award “fake,” Mr. Trump told her to “smile” more and compared her looks to the transgender social influencer Dylan Mulvaney. “She’s a young, attractive woman,” Mr. Trump said at the dinner. “She never smiles. I said, ’Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN Fake News. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan, just smile.’ But, uh, we attack and I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.” Ms. Collins admitted on “The Daily Show” that Mr. Trump has shown a particular dislike of her. “There have been moments where I’ve gone into the Oval Office when I’m on behalf of the TV pool and I haven’t even asked a question yet, and he starts criticizing me. So it’s not even always just about the questions, sometimes it’s just my presence in the room,” she said. Ms. Collins said she prefers to keep the spotlight on substance rather than personal sparring. “I just think in those moments, it’s important to put the reminder back on the work, and the question and the non-answers we get,” she said. “It’s really not about me, and I don’t want it to be about my reaction.” She posted pictures from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, one of which included a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that says “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”