CNN Anchor ‘Saved’ by Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

In a rare crossover moment between the Biden-era media establishment and President Trump’s 2026 communications team, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins publicly thanked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for stepping in during a tense encounter overseas.

What happened, Collins said, shocked even her.

Collins, 33, recounted the incident on the Absolutely Not podcast this week. She said the confrontation happened during the U.S. press pool’s 2025 trip to Saudi Arabia, where President Trump met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for high-stakes energy and security discussions.

“The Royal Guard just wasn’t having it,” Collins said. “They’re not used to reporters shouting questions. They don’t have a free press in the way we do.”

According to Collins, she asked Trump a question during a brief spray. The president didn’t answer — standard practice on foreign trips. The trouble came afterward.

“Someone from the Royal Guard told me I wasn’t allowed into the next event,” Collins said. “It was starting in two minutes. I told them, ‘That’s not how it works. I’m part of the U.S. press pool.’ They said, ‘Well, you’re not coming in.’”

The dispute escalated until the guards reportedly turned to Leavitt for a decision.

And that’s when Collins says everything changed.

Leavitt, 28, has built a reputation as one of the fiercest defenders of the second Trump administration. She frequently spars with CNN and has accused the network of pushing anti-Trump narratives. Yet in Saudi Arabia, she sided with Collins without hesitation.

“To her credit, she said, ‘No. Kaitlan comes in with the U.S. press,’” Collins recalled. “And that was that.”

Collins said the moment mattered.

“When you’re traveling abroad as the American contingent, you stick together,” she said. “We don’t operate like Saudi Arabia does.”

A senior White House official familiar with foreign-trip protocol told us the press secretary’s intervention was not only appropriate but necessary.

“Protecting American press access overseas is part of the job,” the official said. “You never allow a foreign government to decide who gets to cover the President of the United States.”

Despite the moment of grace, Collins and Leavitt are hardly political allies.

Leavitt has repeatedly blasted CNN for what she calls “manufactured outrage” and “deliberate misreporting” about President Trump’s economic agenda, border policies, and military posture.

In December, when Collins pressed Leavitt on Trump’s tariff strategy, the press secretary fired back.

“Every economic metric shows the country booming again,” Leavitt said. “Kaitlan, I wish your network would report that honestly.”

Collins has taken her own shots. She recently criticized Leavitt for defending Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick amid renewed scrutiny of old ties to Jeffrey Epstein — a topic Democrats have attempted to revive in 2026 as a political weapon.

“She’s doing her job,” Collins said on the podcast. “But the press secretary’s goal is to spin things in the best light for their boss. And our job is to ask the questions they don’t want to answer. It’s naturally tense.”

She added: “I don’t think you’re supposed to have a cozy relationship with the press secretary. That’s not the job.”

In an era defined by open combat between the press and the White House, the story Collins shared is one of the rare instances where both sides agreed on something fundamental: American journalists — even the ones the administration clashes with daily — don’t take orders from foreign governments.

As one GOP strategist put it:

“You can fight like cats and dogs in Washington. But when you step onto foreign soil, you’re all Americans. Leavitt understood that.”

Whether the détente lasts longer than that two-minute standoff remains to be seen.

But in 2026, with Trump back in the White House and media battles fiercer than ever, even a single moment of agreement is headline news.