CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, almost always at loggerheads with Donald Trump and officials in his administration, recalled a rare moment during the President’s Saudi Arabia visit when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended her.
It is well-known that Collis is not in the good books of the Trump administration. The POTUS has called her “nasty” and, most recently, when asked about the Epstein files by Collins, Trump complained that Collins “doesn’t smile.” She has also had many heated interactions with Leavitt during the White House press briefings.
Collis recently Heather McMahan’s ‘Absolutely Not’ podcast and shared her experience of being the White House correspondent under the current Trump administration. For a change, she recalled the Saudi Arabia episode as one of the positive moments she experienced with Leavitt.
‘They Freaked Out’: How Karoline Leavitt Defended Kaitlan Collins
Kaitlan Collins revealed that during Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2025 a question she asked to Trump while the latter was on stage with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other world leaders made the Saudi Royal Guards uncomfortable. They tried to ban Collins from the next press events, but Leavitt ensured that she was part of the White House press pool.
Collins recalled that she “dared to ask a question, and they’re not used to that because they don’t have a free press” and the Saudi Royal Guards “freaked out.”
“They came up and they said, ‘OK, well you can’t come into the next event,’ which was like two minutes later,” she said. “And I was like, ‘That’s not how this works. I go into the U.S. press,’ and they were like, ‘Well, you’re not coming in.’ ”
Then she spoke about how Leavitt intervened in the situation and ensured that Collins went in with the rest of the US press. “To her credit, she said, ‘No, Kaitlan’s coming in with the rest of the U.S. press,’ and we went in,” she added.
Donald Trump traveled to the Middle East in May 2025, making stops in key Gulf nations as part of a high-profile diplomatic and business-focused tour. It included visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.