CNN’s Kaitlan Collins delivered a sharp assessment of the Trump administration following Republicans’ midterm election losses, saying the White House appeared to be struggling with how to respond.
“I mean, the Trump administration is lost right now. They’re not really sure how to navigate this going forward,” Collins said during a CNN panel discussion Wednesday.
Her remarks followed an unusually blunt statement from Vice President JD Vance, who blamed the Republican defeats on the war in Iran.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote.
Collins challenged that account, pointing out that Trump’s earlier comments had not gone nearly as far as Vance suggested.
“That’s not what the president said last night,” she said.
Trump later acknowledged that the conflict had hurt Republicans politically but defended his decision to launch military action against Iran.
“If I had to do it again, I’d do it again,” the president told reporters.
Collins also criticized Trump’s attempt to separate rising gasoline prices from the war, arguing that fuel costs had surged after the February strikes.
But Trump’s public appearance after the election gave Collins another reason to question the White House’s response.
Rather than holding a traditional post-election news conference focused on the Republican losses, Trump appeared at the construction site of his new White House ballroom, where he signed a steel beam.
“He appeared at the White House ballroom construction site, signed a steel beam, and right now, is complaining that the Senate didn’t make daylight savings permanent,” Collins said. “And so he’s not really giving them any guidance on how they should handle the massive losses that they suffered.”
Fellow CNN panelist Dana Bash suggested Trump’s behavior might be his way of signaling indifference to the election results.
“But he definitely cares,” Collins replied.
Earlier, Collins said people familiar with Trump had described the ballroom project as his “happy place.”
She also noted that Trump had blamed the losses on Republican candidates rather than himself, despite having personally selected many of them.
The president’s public defense of his decisions stood in contrast to Vance’s call for Republicans to confront the political consequences of the Iran war — a disagreement Collins highlighted as the party began assessing its defeat.
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