President Donald Trump‘s White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung provided what appear to be daily TV ratings (without a date or source) for Fox, CNN, and MSNBC. Cheung wrote: “What’s happening? CNN keeps getting crushed in the ratings is what’s happening.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified Cheung’s post and added: “These ratings are so embarrassing for @CNN. Perhaps they should finally realize their ‘talent’ is talentless!”
These ratings are so embarrassing for @CNN. Perhaps they should finally realize their “talent” is talentless! https://t.co/4yMnblJZ4h
— Karoline Leavitt (@karolineleavitt) July 28, 2025
Without naming specific on-air talent at CNN, Leavitt’s amplification and mockery is being widely interpreted as an escalation of her feud with the network’s most visible White House reporter, Kaitlan Collins.
Last week in the White House press room, as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stood by her side at the podium, Leavitt got into a heated debate with Collins after the reporter questioned Gabbard’s motivations.
Collins asked Gabbard if her release of documents accusing former President Barack Obama and his staff of “manufacturing intelligence” to suggest Russia attempted to influence the results of the 2016 election, was a way to improve her standing with President Trump, “after he said that your intelligence assessments were wrong.”
I am so here for this throwdown between @DNIGabbard and @PressSec @KarolineLeavitt vs. CNN’s @KaitlanCollins pic.twitter.com/fH2YILPwQ0
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2025
Defending Gabbard, Leavitt asked Collins who was “saying that she would release this to try to boost her standing with the president?”
Collins answered, “Well, the president has publicly undermined her when it came to Iran. He said she was wrong. He told me that she didn’t know what she was talking about. That was on Air Force One, on camera.”
[The incident Collins referenced occurred on Air Force One when Collins told Trump that Gabbard had testified that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, the President, who authorized strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, replied, “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one.”]
After Gabbard released the document accusing Obama of “treasonous conspiracy,” Trump said of Gabbard, “She’s like hotter than everybody. She’s the hottest one in the room right now. Because she found out with certainty, I think we knew it before, in all fairness, Tulsi, but now you have certainty. She has all the documents…Very happy and very honored to have you with us…so Tulsi, great job.”
[NOTE: In a direct exchange with Trump in April, Collins asked whether the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been an “error.” The displeased President responded: “Why don’t you just say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country?’ Why can’t you just say that? Why do you go over and over? This is why nobody listens to you anymore. You have no credibility.”]