Trump town hall to air on CNN, test for moderator Kaitlan Collins

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday admitted his upcoming town hall on CNN “could turn into a disaster for all, including me” but claimed the cable network “made me a deal I couldn’t refuse.”

The 2024 Republican presidential front-runner touted his return to CNN with a post on his social media platform Truth Social — and couldn’t resist taking a shot at the news channel’s dismal ratings.

“I’ll be doing CNN tomorrow night, LIVE from the Great State of New Hampshire, because they are rightfully desperate to get those fantastic (TRUMP!) ratings once again,” he wrote.

The town hall, moderated by “CNN This Morning” co-host Kaitlan Collins, will be held at 8 p.m. Wednesday at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.

In his Truth Social post, Trump questioned whether his appearance on the network “could be the beginning of a new and vibrant CNN, with no more fake news.”

“Or could it turn into a disaster for all, including me,” he added.

Trump then wrote: “They made me a deal I couldn’t refuse!!!’ — though he didn’t specify what that deal entailed.

A CNN spokesperson told The Post: “We offered him the opportunity to connect with New Hampshire voters via the live televised CNN Town Hall event.”

Separately, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation — and ordered to pay more than $5 million in damages — by a federal jury in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit accusing him of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room decades ago.

Collins, a former White House reporter during the Trump administration, will take questions from an invited audience made up of New Hampshire Republicans and undecided voters.

Trump had been at war with the network during and after his presidency, invoking his “fake news” insult as well as filing a $475 million defamation suit against CNN last year.

The network has shifted away from the left-leaning commentary during the Trump years following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The CNN parent company’s CEO David Zaslav has pushed for more centrist coverage.

Since CNN announced the town hall, Republicans and Democrats have ripped the network for giving Trump a forum where he can spout the “Big Lie” invective that has been blamed for igniting the Jan. 6 riot.

Zaslav did not address whether the network would have any system in place to censor or cut off Trump.

“He’s the frontrunner, he has to be on our network,” Zaslav said in defending the decision during an interview on CNBC Friday.

On Monday, MSNBC host Joy Reid slammed the rival network’s effort to drive ratings with the Trump town hall.

“Republicans, Democrats, insurrectionists — everybody’s on the air,” Reid said, mocking Zaslav’s claims about CNN’s bipartisanship during her show, “The ReidOut.”

“It feels to me that this is a pretty open attempt by CNN to push itself to the right and make itself attractive, and show its belly to MAGA and to conservatives, hoping they’ll tune in.”

Reid’s guest Charlie Sykes called CNN’s decision to host the Trump town hall “horrifically bad judgment.”

“Let’s be clear about this: This is not journalism, this is entertainment. In journalism, you will control the questions, the answers and you’ll have some sort of a filter for misinformation,” the pundit said.

Collins, 31, will be on the hot seat after a fraught history covering Trump.

She was barred from a 2018 open press event at the White House Rose Garden for apparently upsetting Trump earlier that day with shouted questions in the Oval Office.

The query regarded a conversation between Trump and Michael Cohen about a potential payment to a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

Collins will not be made available before the event, according to AP News.

Before joining CNN in 2018, Collins covered the Trump White House for the Daily Caller.