CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Monday highlighted a notable inconsistency in Donald Trump's handling of mourning for two public figures. In a segment on her show, she contrasted Trump's statements about lowering flags for Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman—who was killed in June in a politically motivated attack—with his later tribute to Charlie Kirk, a podcaster and Trump ally who was killed on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. The report underscored that, while Trump publicly ordered condolences and an official act for Kirk, his approach to Hortman's death did not follow the same pattern, prompting questions about timing and consistency in presidential mourning practices.
Hortman, along with her husband Mark and their dog, was fatally shot in June, an attack described by authorities as politically motivated. In June, Trump spoke with reporters at the White House about flag honors and said he would have lowered the flags for Hortman if the governor had asked. Collins aired a clip in which Trump told her that he would have acted if a request had come from Minnesota, but the remarks on that occasion were not aligned with his later public gestures related to Kirk. In the segment, Collins also presented video of Trump on Air Force One in June, reacting to questions about the Minnesota governor with a starkly different tone.
"I wouldn’t have thought of that. But I would have if somebody had asked me. Had the governor of Minnesota asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly," Trump said during the June interaction when pressed about lowering flags for Hortman. Yet the clip Collins showed later captured Trump telling her, "The governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?" This contrast formed the centerpiece of Collins's reporting on the discrepancy between how Hortman’s death and Kirk’s death were addressed by the president.
Kirk, who was a vocal supporter of Trump, was killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. Trump announced Kirk’s death later that day on Truth Social and ordered all flags at half-staff through Sept. 14. The episode illustrates a pattern in which the president’s public acts of mourning appeared to hinge on the individual and context, according to Collins and the reporting team. Kirk’s death elicited a quick, formal acknowledgment from the president on social media and a flag-down directive, whereas Hortman’s death drew comments focused on whether a formal flag-lowering would have been invoked absent a direct appeal from Minnesota’s governor.
The scene described by Collins aligns with HuffPost’s reporting timeline, which shows the president addressing two very different mourning scenarios in close succession. Hortman’s death in June and Kirk’s death in September produced divergent public gestures, prompting questions about consistency in presidential responses to political violence and public mourning. While Collins framed the issue as a discrepancy in the president’s statements and actions, the overall narrative centers on how official mourning and symbolic acts are deployed and perceived in the public sphere.
The notes accompanying Collins’s report emphasize the tension between the president’s stated willingness to act when asked and the contradictory remarks he delivered when asked about Minnesota’s governor. The public record, as recounted by Collins, includes a June interview in which Trump suggested he would have acted if asked, and a June Air Force One moment in which he criticized Minnesota’s governor in blunt terms. In September, the death of Kirk and the subsequent official acknowledgment marked a different pattern, highlighting the potential for mixed signals in presidential diplomacy and mourning rituals. Through this juxtaposition, the CNN outlet underscored how the same administration can present itself differently depending on the person and the circumstances involved.