Jake Tapper Claps Back at Trump After President’s Name-Calling Rant Against Fellow CNN Host Kaitlan Collins

(Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Jake Tapper hit back at President Donald Trump over a rant against Tapper’s CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins in which he called her “stupid” and “nasty” over a question he didn’t like.

In a Truth Social rant posted on Saturday morning Trump blasted “fake news” CNN and raged against Collins — misspelling her name in the process — over a question about his White House ballroom costing more money than originally projected.

The president wrote:

Caitlin Collin’s of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago. I said because it is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing. It is actually under budget and ahead of schedule, as my jobs always are. It’s just much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned. Interestingly, and seldom reported, there are no taxpayer dollars involved. It is being fully paid for by private donations. FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore. MAGA!!!

In a Saturday post to X, Tapper called his colleague Collins “nice” and “smart” and defended her asking about the controversial construction project. He also corrected Trump’s spelling of Collins’s name.

“It’s a legitimate question about construction of a controversial project on White House grounds,” Tapper wrote in a six-point list.

He thanked Trump for the explanation and questioned how CNN can be “irrelevant” if the president is talking about them all the time.

“Generally speaking if someone or something is irrelevant, the President doesn’t talk about them,” he wrote.

On Friday’s edition of CNN’s The Source, Collins discussed Trump’s ballroom project.

“It comes as we know that the size and the cost of this ballroom have ballooned. Though they still maintain all of it is being paid for with private donations,” she reported.

Collins did talk to Trump on the carpet at the Kennedy Center on Friday though she doesn’t appear to have asked about the ballroom. She pressed him on his FIFA Peace Prize and tensions with Venezuela.

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