Trump weaponized trans actress Dylan Mulvaney’s image to attack Kaitlan Collins. Mulvaney fires back

President Donald Trump spent the weekend trying to extend a joke that had already bombed in the ballroom.On Sunday morning, Trump posted an AI-altered image showing CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins’ face superimposed on transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney’s body. The source image came from a 2023 Instagram post in which Mulvaney appeared with Bud Light cans — the promotion that transformed her, almost overnight, into an all-encompassing target for the American right.The manipulated image followed Trump’s remarks at Friday night’s rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington, D.C., where he told Collins to smile, compared her with Mulvaney and revived false and misleading claims about the beer company’s partnership with the actress.Related: Trump hijacks White House Correspondents’ Dinner redo with antigay jabs, anti-trans mockery & lies By Sunday evening, Mulvaney had responded. She sounded amazed that, more than three years after the Bud Light controversy, the president of the United States was still talking about her.“My name is Dylan Mulvaney, and the president of the United States said my name in his speech four times on Friday night,” Mulvaney said in a lengthy video posted to social media.She began by congratulating Collins on the award she received at the dinner.“I’m incredibly honored to be compared to her in any way, and I hope that she keeps doing all the great work,” Mulvaney said.CNN, in a statement to The Advocate, also defended Collins.“Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional, trusted journalist being honored tonight for her depth of knowledge and the context she provides to audiences all over the world,” the network said. “She reports every day from the White House and the field with real strength and tenacity and skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day. We stand by her to the fullest extent.”Trump returns to Bud LightDuring Frida