Dylan Mulvaney Fires Back at Trump After President’s Mocking WHCD Speech: ‘I Am Permanently Burned Into Their Retinas’

Dylan Mulvaney has responded to President Trump’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, during which the commander-in-chief recounted a transphobic backlash to Mulvaney’s appearance in a Bud Light commercial.

“I’ve been kind of flying under the radar, keeping up a pretty low profile — just doing my little musicals, singing, dancing — and yet I am still his topic of conversation all these years later,” Mulvaney said in a video post shared to TikTok on Sunday evening. “It seems to me that I might be like the one that got away for these men. I am permanently burned into their retinas.”

“Maybe being publicly mocked and criticized by this administration is actually the greatest compliment of all, because it puts me in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today,” Mulvaney continued. “They want to use their power to take away my freedom. But what they don’t understand is that my freedom has zero contingency on what they can provide for me because my freedom is fully dependent on the moment that I acknowledged my real authentic self. … They don’t want me to be able to share that because it would mean young people realizing that, if someone like me can be themselves and find success and freedom, then they can find success and freedom for themselves too.”

Mulvaney also used her video to congratulate CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins for being awarded at the WHCD, saying she was “incredibly honored to be compared” to Collins “in any way.” In Trump’s hourlong address at the event, the president stumbled into discussing Mulvaney by first comparing Collins to her. On Sunday, he called back to the remark by posting an image that edited Collins’ face onto Mulvaney’s body, seated in front of a table of Bud Light cans.

“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.

“To the president, thank you for reminding me that I am more powerful than I even knew,” Mulvaney said, finishing her response. “And to quote my favorite recording artist, Shea Diamond, ‘I am America.’”

On Friday, Collins shared what seemed to be her own subtle response to her mention in Trump’s WHCD speech, posting an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.’”