Trump Shares AI-Edited Image Merging CNN’s Kaitlan Collins With Dylan Mulvaney After WHCA Dinner Mockery

President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social that superimposed CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins' face onto the body of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, days after he mocked Collins at the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner.

The rescheduled dinner took place Friday after a shooting disrupted the original April event. During his remarks, Trump — who repeatedly targets Collins in public appearances — criticized her 2026 WHCA broadcast award for coverage of his February 2025 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling the award "fake." He also publicly chided Collins about her demeanor, asking, "Kaitlan, do you ever smile?" and telling her, "You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile."

"I thought she had 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," Trump said during his remarks.

On Sunday, Trump amplified that comparison by posting an edited image that placed Collins' face onto Mulvaney's body. The unaltered original photograph showed Mulvaney during her 2023 partnership with Bud Light. The Truth Social post included no caption or explanation.

Mulvaney, 29, shared an Instagram video promoting Bud Light in 2023, sparking conservative backlash (Dylan Mulvaney / Instagram)

Dylan Mulvaney, 29, partnered with Bud Light in 2023 to promote a March Madness contest. In a widely publicized video, she adopted an Audrey Hepburn–inspired look while posing with multiple cans of Bud Light and later noted the company had sent her a commemorative can to mark her 365th day of womanhood. The collaboration sparked conservative backlash and a boycott that was widely reported to have contributed to a decline in the brand's sales.

At the WHCA dinner, Trump claimed the Mulvaney tie cost Bud Light "$35 billion in market cap," adding, "I wouldn't want to hire Dylan anytime soon," and called the partnership "the worst commercial ever made," despite the fact that Bud Light never ran a commercial featuring Mulvaney.

Observers and critics characterized Trump's image post and remarks as part of a broader pattern of antagonism toward female journalists. CNN's chief executive, Mark Thompson, defended the network's reporters in a statement: "We stand by our journalists and the integrity and fair-mindedness with which the CNN team reports the news. Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting to the public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution."

Trump also targeted other journalists during his lengthy speech, derisively nicknaming CNN's Jake Tapper "Fake Tapper" and calling Washington Post journalist Josh Dawsey — one of the night's award recipients — "unhireable." The AI image post and his WHCA remarks reignited debate about the use of manipulated images in political discourse and the treatment of reporters by public officials.