Donald Trump apparently wasn’t ready for bed Tuesday night.
Instead, the president launched another late-night tirade against the reporters covering him, unloading on CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins and the news organizations he recently banned from the White House.
Trump called Collins a “Third Rate ‘Reporter’” and a “SLEAZEBAG,” accused CNN and MS NOW of having a “TRUMP” addiction, and declared that they were all “sick, treasonous, and demented.”
Then he turned his fire on the federal judge assigned to hear the media outlets’ lawsuit.
The explosion came after Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House and had their journalists’ press credentials deactivated. The three organizations responded by suing the administration, arguing that the ban violates their First Amendment rights. A hearing on their request for a temporary restraining order was scheduled before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly.
But Trump seemed particularly irritated by one thing: Collins was still covering him.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump encountered Collins at the United Nations in New York, where she was covering the General Assembly. He questioned why she was there after CNN had been banned from the White House and told her, “You shouldn’t be here.”
The obvious answer was that the White House and the United Nations are two different places. The UN issues its own media credentials, and the White House ban did not prevent CNN journalists from covering Trump at the General Assembly.
Later that night, Trump returned to the subject on Truth Social.
“All of the SLEAZEBAGS, like Third Rate ‘Reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins, of Fake News CNN, a truly unhappy person, said they weren’t going to be covering me,” Trump wrote.
But CNN hadn’t stopped covering him.
In fact, CNN, MS NOW and Politico continued reporting on Trump after being shut out of the White House. The television networks had suspended their shared White House TV pool in protest after CNN was removed from its assigned pool duties, but that did not mean the networks had stopped covering the president.
Trump then took another swing at Collins.
“She’s got a ‘TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC,” he wrote. “They’re all sick, treasonous, and demented!”
And then came the judge.
“The ‘good news’ is that they have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge,” Trump wrote.
That judge is Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2017.
Kelly has already been involved in a Trump-era fight over White House press access. In 2018, he ordered the Trump administration to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials after the White House revoked them.
Now Kelly is being asked to decide whether Trump can keep CNN, MS NOW and Politico out of the White House.
The media organizations are seeking an order restoring their access while the case proceeds. The administration has defended the ban, arguing that White House press access is not an automatic right and accusing the outlets of publishing false or misleading information.
Trump’s attack on Kelly is therefore coming at a particularly convenient—or inconvenient, depending on your perspective—moment.
The president has already suggested that the judge is likely to rule against him. And now, as the case reaches court, Trump is publicly branding the judge he personally appointed as “totally disloyal.”
Because apparently being appointed by Trump doesn’t necessarily guarantee staying on Trump’s good side.
Minutes after attacking Collins and the judge, he posted a bizarre video depicting a man putting on a dress and makeup while pretending to be a “fake news” CNN reporter.
It was the latest installment in a media war that has now moved from the White House press room to the courtroom—and, apparently, to Trump’s midnight Truth Social feed.
The hearing over the media outlets’ White House access is now the next act. And Trump is already attacking the judge who will hear it.
