CNN’s Jake Tapper criticizes Trump’s ‘rambling’ and ‘incoherent’ White House briefing

WASHINGTON, DC: CNN’s Jake Tapper criticized President Donald Trump’s “rambling” press conference on Tuesday, January 20, during which the president delivered what he described as a whirlwind performance.

Trump marked the first anniversary of his second term with a White House briefing that stretched more than 90 minutes.

Jake Tapper breaks down Trump's White House briefing

Jake Tapper opened Tuesday’s episode of CNN’s 'The Lead' by saying, “Welcome to 'The Lead'. I'm Jake Tapper.”

He then criticized President Donald Trump’s briefing, stating, “We are going to start with breaking news on our world, lead, President Trump today, marking one full year in office with a marathon rambling, at times incoherent, possibly unsettling.”

Tapper continued, “White House news briefing, clocking in at about 15 minutes shy of two hours. For any supporters of his looking for reassurance that the Trump doing wild 1 am social media post is not the same Trump in the White House, well, they probably were not reassured."

The marathon briefing followed a series of Truth Social posts in which the president shared what appeared to be private text messages from French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte, questioned his Greenland takeover demands, and called for his political opponents to be jailed.

Tapper then aired clips from the press conference, including a moment when Trump claimed he won the state of Minnesota “all three times,” despite no Republican having carried the state since 1972.

In another exchange, when asked, “How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?” the president replied, “You’ll find out.”

Jake Tapper slams Trump’s rambling White House briefing

Tapper noted that Trump began his White House “monologue” by complaining about his public relations image, calling it “a common complaint of politicians who have horrific poll numbers.”

Trump’s wandering remarks also touched on ongoing ICE raids in Minnesota, where he claimed the state is “a very corrupt place, and the elections are totally corrupt. I feel I won it all three times.”

Tapper responded, “He feels he won all three times,” before quoting conservative broadcaster Ben Shapiro: “facts don’t care about your feelings.”

He added, “President Trump lost Minnesota all three times fair and square every time. Not really surprising. Minnesota has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1972.”

Tapper also highlighted Trump’s “frankly bizarre, rambling moments” during the briefing, including repeated complaints about his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Tapper went further, accusing Trump of “weaponizing” the government, saying, “The Justice Department, right now under Trump, is investigating the Governor and the Attorney General of Minnesota and the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul for what we don‘t know, But opposing Trump has a way of landing you in the sights of his Justice Department.”

CNN's Kristen Holmes says Trump goes off script

CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said President Donald Trump sees himself as his own best spokesman. She referenced his use of the pseudonym “John Barron” in the 1980s and 1990s, when he posed as his own publicist to contact the media and promote himself.

Holmes added, “You heard a lot of frustration from him today. He has seen all of the same poll numbers that we have seen. Just a reminder, it‘s not just public polling, they have their own internal polling. They know that people are unhappy with President Trump‘s handling of the economy in particular. They are also unhappy overall, but especially when it comes to the economy.”

Speaking from inside the briefing room, Holmes noted, “It did not seem as though these were prepared remarks in any way.”

She explained, “President Trump seemed to be kind of thumbing through it in real time, stopping reading various things from there and then elaborating on them... often going off script, talking about elections in Minnesota or fraud or a litany of other things.”