‘You shouldn’t be here,’ the president told the journalist after the administration barred CNN from White House access on Friday.
‘It’s an honor to be here, I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,’ Trump said as Collins questioned him on the Iran war. ‘You said you weren’t gonna cover me, you shouldn’t be covering me.’
The president said ‘we’re making a lot of progress, our country is doing really, really well’ before he walked off with Melania.
Asked by another reporter for his message to Vladimir Putin, Trump turned back and said: ‘Settle the war.’
The ferocious exchange came after the Trump administration barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over coverage Trump branded ‘fake news.’
The impasse escalated on Monday as the three outlets sued the administration alleging the ban breached their First Amendment rights, while the TV pool, made up of ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and NBC, said that they would boycott White House events in solidarity.
Moments after his exchange with Collins, Trump took the stage at the General Assembly to scold world leader over failing to confront the threat of Iran and threatening to launch fresh strikes that would ‘drive them to hell.’
Donald Trump yelled, ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as he arrived at the UN on Tuesday
Melania looks on as Trump clashes with the press on Tuesday
Kaitlan Collins in the White House briefing room earlier this month
Asked by another reporter what his message was to Vladimir Putin, Trump turned back and said emphatically: ‘Settle the war’
‘While others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made it. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them. While others have talked of courage, America has shown it,’ the president said.
‘For 51 years, the fanatical Iranian regime has ruled by bloodshed and mass murder, spreading death and carnage and chaos across the entire Middle East and beyond. They were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more.’
Trump openly weighed what his next step in the conflict would be, remarking he has a ‘big decision to make’ about whether to let Iran rebuild or if he should ‘annihilate the Islamic Republic’ and ‘drive them into Hell.’
Sitting in attendance were many of the closest US allies including, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump’s most recent trade war target Canadian PM Mark Carney.
Trump touted his success in toppling Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro and seizing the country’s oil.
‘To the victor go the spoils,’ the president said, adding that together the US and Venezuela represented ‘have more than 60 percent of the oil in the world.’
The president warned a similar fate awaits the ‘failed state’ Cuba. At this insult, the Cuban delegation got up and left the room.
Closer to home, the Republican lauded his government’s efforts to take on Mexican and international drug cartels that have expanded rapidly in recent decades.
‘The cartels are the ISIS of the Western hemisphere, not good people.’
Following his speech, Trump launched into a day of diplomacy that includes talks with Britain’s Burnham and Ukraine’s Zelensky, plus a meeting with Gulf leaders.
Trump is also scheduled to sign an agreement with Denmark and Greenland allowing an expanded US military presence on the Arctic island, before a closed-door pull-aside meeting with Venezuela’s leader Delcy Rodríguez in the evening.
His attendance at the annual summit comes as the wars in Iran and Ukraine drive a fuel squeeze at home, with US retail diesel rising above $6.50 a gallon for the first time on record.
Trump is open to meeting Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian while he is in New York, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.
‘This is a president that will meet with anybody for the most part, because he believes that engaging with people is important if you’re going to solve problems,’ Rubio said on NBC’s Today show.
‘It doesn’t mean you’re going to end up agreeing with them, but it’s important.’
Global oil benchmark Brent crude retreated roughly 1 percent to around $99 per barrel amid renewed optimism.
Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly
US President Donald Trump speaks briefly to the press as he arrives during the 81st United Nations General Assembly
Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive during the 81st session of the United Nations
Trump told last year’s General Assembly that the US had ‘demolished’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities after he ordered strikes on three key sites in June 2025. He also claimed ‘everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.’
He returns nearly seven months into a war with Iran that has become a major issue for Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
US and Israeli strikes have killed much of Tehran’s top leadership and degraded its military capabilities, while an American blockade of Iranian oil has put further pressure on its economy.
But Iran has effectively strangled the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil previously flowed, while Tehran-backed Houthi rebels have made the alternative Bab al-Mandab Strait increasingly perilous.
Drone strikes by Iran-backed militias in Iraq forced Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline earlier this month to shut down, further increasing pressure on the energy market.
Qatar and other mediators are trying to overcome a ‘deep deficit of trust’ between Washington and Tehran and get the two sides back to talks, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Monday.
‘Either we sign a deal now or sign a deal 10 months away,’ al-Ansari told the Concordia Annual Summit. ‘The only difference is the number of dead and destruction that we see.’
The Greenland deal, announced last week, follows Trump’s repeated threats to ‘take over’ the island by military force if necessary. Greenland remains Danish territory under the agreement.
New York police arrest activists and demonstrators protesting against US President Donald Trump’s policies near the United Nations headquarters
A protester holds placards denouncing Trump outside the UN in New York
Trump speaks to the press alongside Melania
Donald and Melania Trump ascend an escalator inside the UN headquarters
What do you make of Donald Trump’s decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House?
Trump claimed last week that he had got Russia and Ukraine to stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure, after promising on the 2024 campaign trail to end the war on Day One.
Zelensky said he would sign up if Russia did. Moscow said it would only comply if Western energy sanctions were lifted first.
But both sides have kept striking energy infrastructure, including a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow over the weekend involving some 450 aircraft.
Trump flies back to Washington to greet China’s Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, with the TV pool’s boycott threatening to leave the state visit without network coverage.
Melania’s office has taken a different line, allowing CNN to cover her announcement at the St. Regis hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.
