This story originally appeared on The Advocate.
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 Light
During Friday’s dinner, Trump first directed a familiar, gendered criticism at Collins, who covers his administration from the White House.
“You should be a happy person,” he said. “So smile, Kaitlan, just smile.”
He then claimed he had confused Collins with Mulvaney.
Related: Dylan Mulvaney opens up about ‘Beergate,’ tripping on ayahuasca, and her new book
“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney,” Trump said.
Mulvaney was never featured on Bud Light cans sold to the public. The company sent her a personalized commemorative can, which she showed in sponsored social media content in 2023. She also promoted a March Madness contest for the brand.
The limited partnership produced an enormous right-wing backlash. Conservatives organized a boycott, Republican politicians joined the attacks, and musician Kid Rock filmed himself shooting cases of Bud Light. Mulvaney endured threats and sustained anti-trans harassment as the company largely remained silent.
Trump distorted the episode Friday, claiming that Mulvaney cost Bud Light $35 billion in market value.
“That was the worst commercial ever made,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t want to hire Dylan anytime soon.”
Related: Young Republicans mock cisgender candidate for Congress over likeness to Dylan Mulvaney
‘Permanently burned into their retinas’
Mulvaney said she had recently been keeping a relatively low profile, concentrating on singing, dancing and musical theater. Yet Trump had reached back to a years-old controversy to make her the object of national ridicule again.
“It seems to me that I might be the one that got away for these men,” she said. “I am permanently burned into their retinas. I am microchipped into their minds.”
She explained that being ghosted recently by someone she liked had taught her not to seek approval from people who did not want her.
“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.
Mulvaney then turned Trump’s mockery into a measure of the company she keeps.
“Maybe being publicly mocked and criticized by this administration is actually the greatest compliment of all,” she said, “because it puts me in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today.”
Why, after all this time, was her success still so threatening?
“What is it that I have that they don’t?” Mulvaney asked. “Oh my God, freedom.”
She said Trump and his administration could wield the power of the federal government against transgender people but could not take away the freedom she found by acknowledging who she was.
“My freedom has zero contingency on what they can provide for me,” she said. “My freedom is fully dependent on the moment that I acknowledged my real, authentic self and every day since.”
‘This is the time’
Mulvaney used the second half of her response to call for concrete support for transgender and nonbinary people.
“This is the time. I am sounding the alarm,” she said. “We need you to stand up for us, vote for us, donate to our causes, hire us and support the businesses who hire us. But most importantly, love us.”
She urged viewers to protect young people being made to feel ashamed of their identities and told transgender women to support one another.
“To the dolls, let’s have each other’s backs,” she said.
Mulvaney also reclaimed the intended insult behind Trump’s comparison. Women who are told they resemble a transgender woman, she said, should “wear it like a medal.”
Her response arrived as the Trump administration continues using federal authority to restrict transgender people’s participation in public life, including through policies involving military service, identification documents, healthcare and education.
“To the president, thank you for reminding me that I am more powerful than I even knew,” she said.
