Dylan Mulvaney claps back after Trump’s insulting White House speech
Dylan Mulvaney has responded to Trump (TikTok/dylanmulvaney | Getty Images)
Dylan Mulvaney has responded after President Donald Trump mocked her and CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins during his speech at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday night (24 July).
While congratulating Collins on an award for her coverage of the administration, Trump criticised the journalist before comparing her to Mulvaney and reviving the backlash surrounding Mulvaney’s 2023 Bud Light partnership.
He later doubled down by sharing an edited image to Truth Social on Sunday (26 July) that placed Collins’ face onto Mulvaney’s Bud Light campaign photo.
In a nearly four-minute video posted on Sunday (26 July), Mulvaney began by congratulating Collins on her award, saying she was “incredibly honoured” to be compared to the journalist. She then reflected on the fact that Trump had mentioned her multiple times despite her largely staying out of the political spotlight in recent years. “I am still his topic of conversation all these years later,” she said. “It seems to me that I might be like the one that got away for these men. Like, I am permanently burned into their retinas. I am microchipped into their minds.”
Mulvaney said she no longer viewed the attacks in the same way she might have just weeks ago, explaining that a recent personal experience had shifted her perspective. “Maybe I shouldn’t want to be professionally supported by an administration that doesn’t personally support me or so many others in this country,” she said. “Maybe being publicly mocked and criticised by this administration is actually like the greatest compliment of all, because it puts me in the company of some of like the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today.”
She also questioned why members of the administration seemed so invested in preventing her success, concluding that what sets her apart is her freedom to live authentically. “My freedom is fully dependent on the moment that I acknowledged my real authentic self,” she said, arguing that visibility gives young transgender people hope that they can also find happiness and success. Mulvaney also warned that efforts to silence trans people are ultimately about preventing others, especially young people, from seeing that possibility.
Mulvaney ended her message by encouraging viewers to continue supporting transgender and non-binary people before addressing Trump directly. “To the president,” she said, “thank you for reminding me that I am more powerful than I even knew.”
Meanwhile, Collins also appeared to brush off Trump’s remarks, sharing photos to her Instagram on Saturday (25 July) from the dinner alongside a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
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