Trump’s ill-fated relationship with CNN anchors

“A long nightmare of the U.S. is over,” a CNN anchor, Jake Tapper, said when former U.S. President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. As the first presidential debate is coming up on Thursday (local time) for this year’s presidential election, the former president’s ill-fated relationships with Tapper and Dana Bash, a co-anchor of CNN, are garnering attention.

When the former president said in December that illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of the U.S., Tapper responded that Hitler used to say Jews poison the blood of others. Trump criticized Tapper by calling him “fake Tapper” on several occasions.

The former president also has an uncomfortable relationship with Bash. When the anchor asked Trump who was staying in a hotel in Washington where he was spending his last day the day before the 2016 presidential election, the former president seemed visibly annoyed and said it was a very rude question. Bash previously said Trump discriminates against female journalists.

Some believe that Trump accepted the two anchors to make himself look like a scapegoat. The Trump camp said the former president was willing to accept the three-to-one fight to bring a message of victory to the people. CNN said the debate will be led by experts who have over 50 years of experience based on facts. The former president did not have a great relationship with Chris Wallace, an anchor of Fox News who led presidential debates for the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.


이기욱 기자 71wook@donga.com