During a White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt found herself at odds with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins over questions concerning U.S. troops who lost their lives in an Iranian attack. Collins inquired about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks, criticizing media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six American service members in a drone strike in Kuwait. She questioned whether the administration preferred the media to minimize coverage of these fatalities linked to Trump’s military actions in the Middle East. Leavitt retorted sharply, saying, “That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan… and you know it.”

Leavitt accused Collins and her network of consistently twisting the administration’s words to paint the President negatively. Collins countered, stating, “I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad.” Leavitt responded by suggesting that the American public and CNN’s ratings would disagree with Collins’ assertion of unbiased coverage. Hegseth had previously accused journalists of attempting to tarnish the President’s image by spotlighting the troop casualties, which occurred shortly after the launch of “Operation Epic Fury.”

The exchanges between Leavitt, 28, and Collins, 33, are part of a long-standing rivalry often witnessed on camera during press briefings. Collins, who has extensively covered Trump’s presidency and his electoral campaigns, is known for her incisive questioning, which frequently leads to heated interactions over Trump’s policies, both foreign and domestic. In a notable incident last November, Collins challenged Leavitt regarding Trump’s interpretation of a video featuring Democratic lawmakers advising military and intelligence personnel on refusing illegal orders.

At the time, Leavitt told reporters several times that the lawmakers – all veterans – were urging the military to refuse ‘lawful orders.’ Collins quizzed Leavitt again in December over the President’s economic record, with Leavitt insisting the press corps was going harder on her than it had on her predecessors during Joe Biden’s tenure. The feuds play out against the backdrop of Warner Bros Discovery, CNN’s parent company, being sold to Paramount – with Trump having previously expressed his desire to see Collins’ employer offloaded as part of the deal. Despite their adversarial relationship, Leavitt has defended Collins from Saudi authorities during overseas presidential trips.

Collins was nearly barred from a press event in Saudi Arabia after an awkward exchange with Trump in front of the country’s leader, only for Leavitt to intervene on her behalf. ‘They famously do not like the media there,’ Collins said in an interview with the Absolutely Not Podcast in February. After the officials left the room, Collins said the ‘Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question.’ ‘They’re not used to that there, because they don’t have a free press,’ she explained. Moments later, she was informed she would not be allowed into the next event because of her actions.

White House staff noticed the confrontation and ran to Leavitt, who stepped in to save Collins. ‘To her credit, she said: ‘No, Kaitlan is coming in with the rest of the US press.” ‘I do think its important in that moment, especially when you’re kind of the US contingent abroad, and we don’t do things like they do in Saudi Arabia,’ Collins added. Trump’s war with Iran has spiraled into a wider regional conflict after Tehran unleashed retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. Iranian missiles and drones have targeted US military bases, Israel, and several Gulf nations following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday. The US and Israel were preparing to ramp up bombing missions over Iran on Wednesday as Hegseth vowed ‘we’re just getting started.’

‘Four days in we have only just begun,’ Hegseth said. ‘Now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile.’ Hegseth said the US had opened the campaign with ‘exquisite standoff munitions,’ sophisticated long-range weapons designed to strike from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses. He said those munitions were no longer needed, pushing back at reports of stretched supplies with the assurance that ‘our stockpile of those remains extremely strong.’

A US submarine sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo off the coast of Sri Lanka overnight, the first time such an attack has been launched since WWII. Some 148 men are presumed to have drowned. Hegseth also claimed that the leader of a unit that had attempted to Trump had been ‘hunted down and killed’. Trump’s war in the Middle East has triggered a dramatic collapse in his approval ratings, the latest Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll shows.