'Be quiet!' Trump snaps at CNN's Kaitlan Collins during Oval Office confrontation

President Donald Trump lashed out again at CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday during a press gaggle in the Oval Office after she asked him about whether his so-called "anti-weaponization" fund is dead or just on hold.

Trump's Department of Justice sought to establish the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund as part of a settlement between the Trump administration and the IRS over a 2019 case involving Trump's leaked tax returns. The fund was intended to pay people who claimed they were wrongfully prosecuted by the government, and has faced significant bipartisan criticism after some of the president's allies said they would seek restitution.

Collins asked Trump on Wednesday whether the administration was still pursuing the fund after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday that the idea was dead. Trump apparently did not care for her line of questioning and lashed out.

"I know one thing ... the weaponization fund, as far as I am concerned, is a beautiful thing," Trump said. "I didn't make it, but when I heard about it, I thought it was the greatest thing because people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, CNN, New York Times, have abused our people ..."

Collins tried to cut in and ask a follow-up question, but Trump shut her down.

"Be quiet!" he said. "Have abused our people so badly, and you should be ashamed of yourself. She used to be a conservative, can you believe? She used to be a conservative from Alabama."

President Donald Trump's latest string of controversial decisions and bad publicity is enraging Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who feel it's starting to disrupt their efforts to pass major legislation.

According to Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio, "Senate Republicans [are] very frustrated that Trump [and] his admin are dropping these things seemingly without regard for what’s happening in the Senate at that moment."

A key moment of frustration, he noted, was the announcement of the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to pay out his political allies after Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against his own IRS, which generated days of bad publicity and put Republican lawmakers on the defensive — at precisely the moment when they needed maximal unity to pass a Homeland Security reconciliation bill, which required oversight from the Judiciary Committee.

The administration has now dropped this fund, at least for the time being, after multiple federal courts pumped the brakes on it.

This week, Desiderio said, Trump threw another lit match into a powder keg by nominating longtime partisan loyalist Bill Pulte for Director of National Intelligence, despite having none of the qualifications for this role required under statute. Once again, Republicans found themselves split on the issue as they are trying to get through the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — the very bill that authorizes the powers Pulte would oversee.

According to recent reports, Democrats are exploring the votes to block any passage of FISA until the Trump administration reverses course on appointing Pulte.

President Donald Trump ranted against CNN's Kaitlan Collins and attacked her during a White House press conference on Wednesday, claiming she "never smiles."

Trump was criticizing Collins' network after a question about the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund when he turned his attention to the CNN anchor.

"Some of you will believe it, like CNN will believe it, because they knew what was going on and they're crooked as hell. CNN is a very corrupt organization," he said.

Trump started to take aim at Collins, whom he has attacked during previous press events.

"She's a young, beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile off her face, I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted and then we win our election in a massive landslide."

He said, "The reporter should be happy," describing the war in Iran as "a detour," and part of "saving our country."

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's latest scheme to buy a private island in Albania astounded two political analysts on Wednesday.

This week, Trump and Kushner unveiled their plans to buy a 1,400-hectare private island and build a resort for the ultra-wealthy. The Albanian government approved plans for the project last year, which is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion, according to reports. However, Albanian authorities opened a corruption investigation into the project on Monday because of the overlap between Kushner and Trump's businesses and President Donald Trump's political role, Politico reported.

Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, co-hosts of "Pod Save America" and former Obama White House staffers, were stunned by the new project during a new episode of their podcast.

"I don't understand these people. I don't understand what motivates them," Lovett said. "How they wake up every day and decide what they're going to do with their precious time on this earth. They've already stolen so much money. They've already made, uh, so much money off Donald Trump being in office. It is so nefarious. They are so rich. They could just be rich for the rest of their lives, but there's something clearly missing."

Vietor added that the project reeked of corruption.

"To your point, the scale of the corruption, it's so vast, it's hard to wrap your head around, and it's like relentless," Vietor said.