Trump Bitterly Attacks CNN’s Jake Tapper — Then Thanks Him For ‘Admitting’ Something He Did Not Admit

Ex-President Donald Trump was up late Friday night attacking CNN anchor Jake Tapper — then mock-thanking him for “admitting” something Tapper did not actually admit.

Trump has made Tapper one of his regular targets ever since Tapper’s thorough grilling of then-candidate Trump in 2016, but has escalated since Tapper cut away from a Trump photo op after his arrest and arraignment in Miami.

Shortly after midnight, Trump used his Truth Social platform to attack Tapper by referring to him as “Fake Tapper” — his go-to insult for CNN — and offering mock gratitude.

“Thank you for the admission Fake Tapper! Jake Tapper Finally Admits Trump Beat the Corporate Media,” Trump wrote.

He then linked to an article that mischaracterizes remarks Tapper made in an interview on Kara Swisher’s podcast On with Kara Swisher last week.

Tapper described Trump as a disrupter and told Swisher many in the media were knocked off balance, including at CNN — and had a lot to say that Trump wouldn’t be thanking him for:

Now, in terms of the larger question about what did I think about his mission, Donald Trump is a disruptor, and that is not meant as a criticism. I think even his fans would agree that he disrupts. Some of that disrupting is probably good, in terms of getting the Republican Party to think about wars and involvement in wars, in terms of getting the Republican Party to think more about the victims of free trade, as opposed to just corporate profits. I’m not saying that everything he has done has fallen in line with those principles, but I’m just giving examples of ways that his disrupting has been not negative. There has certainly been a lot of very negative ways of his disruption. I think that every news organization in America was disrupted by Donald Trump, especially by his attacking the media, his making —

Kara Swisher: And CNN in particular for sure.

Jake Tapper: Well, he focused on CNN. I’m not sure if it was because of his previous relationship with Jeff Zucker. I’m not sure it’s because of our position as the only non-, I would argue, nonpartisan, nonideological 24-hour cable news network. Whatever. But he picked on us a lot. But that’s okay. As Hyman Roth said, “This is the business we’ve chosen.”

Kara Swisher: Godfather.

Jake Tapper: I think he disrupted everybody. I think he knocked everybody in the news media off. Look at the Fox Dominion lawsuit, if you want to see how one organization was knocked so far off its tracks that they thought that a reporter like Kristin Fisher should be fired or kicked off air because she was telling the truth about the election. That is —

Kara Swisher: Sure. Donald Trump doesn’t see CNN as nonpartisan, let’s be clear. He doesn’t. He talks about it. It’s very partisan, but go ahead.

Jake Tapper: Donald Trump … But you know …

Kara Swisher: Yeah.

Jake Tapper: If Fox airs something that’s not anti-DeSantis, he attacks them for being partisan.

Kara Swisher: Yeah.

Jake Tapper: So back to the CNN thing. Do I think CNN or some individuals at CNN or some moments in CNN’s history during the Trump years, we were knocked off our equilibrium a little bit? Yes. Every media organization was to one degree or another. Did I think that we needed some sort of wholesale revision? No. I do not. Or there were some tweaks that were necessary. Yes. That is what I said to Chris when he came onboard. Our North Star here at CNN has always been the journalism, not preaching to the choir. We’re not an entertainment company with a news division. We are a news company, and we are not trying to preach to the rest of the progressive choir or the MAGA choir. We are our own unique being. That is what I thought Chris’s mission was, and I agreed with that wholeheartedly. Do I think there were moments that we got knocked off that? Yeah. But I think that we’re good now.

Watch the full 2016 interview above via CNN.

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