The president’s latest insult from the briefing room podium landed on a CNN correspondent who had asked him a single question about impeaching his defense secretary.
President Donald Trump, 80, made an unannounced appearance in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, with UFC CEO Dana White beside him at the podium, and turned on CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins less than a week after the midterm rout that handed Democrats control of Congress.
Collins asked whether he would stand behind Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if the House impeached him. Trump said he would, claiming the Pentagon chief “won two wars,” seemingly pointing to the Venezuela strike and the ongoing war with Iran.
Collins pressed, telling the president that Rep. Thomas Massie, the outgoing Kentucky Republican, had accused Hegseth of carrying out an illegal act. Trump answered with insults aimed at the congressman, at Collins and her network, and at CNN’s ratings. “Massie’s a loser, just like you’re a loser at CNN, just like your ratings are a loser,” he said. “Massie is a loser, stone cold loser.”
Massie’s Second Try at Hegseth
Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in the House that same day. The articles charge that he went to war in breach of the War Powers Resolution, disregarded civilian-protection laws, ordered extrajudicial killings, cracked down on free speech, seized a sovereign leader and ran an unlawful war in Yemen. The allegations have not been adjudicated.
The articles also cited the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without congressional authorization, U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and an effort to punish Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., over a video telling service members they can refuse illegal orders.
Massie had tried once before. His first attempt to force an impeachment vote came ahead of the midterms, and Speaker Mike Johnson called an early recess to avoid it. The resolution expired, and Massie reintroduced it Nov. 9.
The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to refer the articles to committee, effectively ending the impeachment push. Sen. Ted Cruz had predicted on election night that the House would impeach Hegseth during the lame-duck session.
Hegseth, 46, who has a net approval rating of -29 points, answered the articles at his Pentagon news conference on Nov. 10, calling Massie a “disgruntled and defeated congressman.” “I stand behind every one of these operations,” he told reporters.
Democrats have promised investigations into Hegseth’s Pentagon once they take the majority in January. “He’s got to go,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, expected to be the next Speaker, said of the defense secretary in a recent interview.
Trump, from the podium, turned the question around on earlier wars and asked reporters why no one moved to impeach the men who ran Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tapper Plays the Tape Back
CNN anchor Jake Tapper played the exchange on Monday’s episode of “The Lead” and delivered his own verdict. “Kind of incredible to hear President Trump, after last Tuesday’s results, calling anyone else a loser,” he told viewers.
Tapper also wrote on X that only one person in the exchange had just watched voters reject his conduct, his hand-picked candidates and his policies in state after state — Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and Georgia — and that the person was not Collins.
Collins, who is from Alabama, posted a clip of the clash on social media with a caption noting the president told her he would back Hegseth even if he were impeached. Commenters praised her for staying unfazed while the president berated her on live television.
Collins Has Been Here Before
Trump has aimed at the correspondent repeatedly. He admonished her for not smiling enough, described her as a “very average person” in an interview with Time ahead of the midterms, and called her a “SLEAZEBAG” on Truth Social.
Other female journalists have drawn similar fire. Trump blasted Washington Post reporter Natalie Allison over questions about his deportation strategy, told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey “quiet, piggy!” when she raised the Epstein files, and called “60 Minutes” correspondent Norah O’Donnell a “disgrace” for asking about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
White Learned of It in London
Collins also asked White whether he had told the president no to the press secretary job. White said he does not tell the president no to anything and never said no, and that every media outlet was calling him while he waited for Trump to speak first. “I have zero political aspirations,” he told the briefing.
White was abroad when he found out about the post. “I was at a fight for Zuffa Boxing in London when he called me and told me that he had done this, and the last 24 hours of my life have been insane,” he said.
Trump explained the offer this way: the White House was having a very bad press day, White’s name came to him, he posted it, the story was written as if he meant it, and White came by anyway. He said he was “sort of kidding.” His Truth Social post over the weekend requested that White bring along a staff of fighters — Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harris — to take on what he called the Lunatic Left.
The briefing ran well past the UFC detour. Trump gave an update on the Iran war after meeting Qatari officials earlier in the day, called the midterm result ridiculous and railed about the stock market sliding after the vote. Democrats flipped traditional Republican strongholds in the midterms, including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.
He repeated his support for a posthumous pardon for baseball great Pete Rose and defended his decision to install Stephen Miller as chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles, who stepped down.
Trump turned to another chief executive on Thursday, Nov. 12, when he said former Apple CEO Tim Cook should replace Jensen Huang, who resigned as CEO of Nvidia. “A Legend replaces a Legend!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.