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Lara Trump says Jake Tapper's private apology was 'too late' after explosive book release

Fox News host Lara Trump disclosed that CNN's Jake Tapper apologized to her about former President's mental decline during the 2020 presidential campaign. The two argued about it on Jake's show with Dana Bash, State of the Union in October 2020.

Lara Trump and Jake Tapper
Lara Trump and Jake Tapper got into about Biden's mental faculties(Image: Variety via Getty Images)

Lara Trump revealed that Jake Tapper privately apologized to her before doing it publicly on TV for shutting down her claim of Former President Biden's "cognitive decline" in a 2020 interview.


The First daughter-in-law, wife of Eric Trump, was on The Ingraham Angle on Tuesday, May 27 and Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked her about the CNN's reporter's apology following a clip of his public admission on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Monday, May 26.

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Jake is on a book tour for a book he co-wrote with journalist Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. He went on the talk show to promote the book that claims the politician's mental and physical decline was hidden from the American public and he acknowledged that he was wrong and Lara was right. He said he feels "tremendous humility" and apologized to her.

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"Jake Tapper called me about two months ago, actually," Lara recalled. "And he said, 'I have this book coming out. And I know everybody is saying that I should apologize to you. I plan, whenever the book comes out, to go on TV and I will say you were right and I was wrong.' And I guess to Jake’s credit, he did that."

 Lara Trump on stage as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina.
Lara said she appreciated Jake's apology but that it was too late(Image: Getty Images)

Trump continued to say that while she does "appreciate" Jake's apology as he kept his word, "it feels a little bit too late" since he "played a role in it."


"Jake Tapper can't discount his role in that, no matter how much he wants to come out now," she said. "No matter how much he wants to come out now and say, 'You know what, we're going to start calling the shots like we see them actually now.' It's too late."

"You can't do this time and time again to people and continue to lie to people in the way they did and think that you're going to get any different result. It's the reason Donald Trump is in the White House right now," Lara added.

In October 2020, the Fox News host was a guest on Jake's State of the Union, when she brought up, claiming that Biden has a deteriorating mental state.


Jake swiftly interrupted to say, "I think you were mocking his stutter," before adding, "And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline."

Jake first apologized on The Megyn Kelly Show on May 20 and shared he called Lara "months ago and said, ‘You were right."

"She saw something that I did not see at the time, 100 percent," the journalist said to Megyn. "I own that."


And then he went on Piers Morgan Uncensored this week to double down on the apology and also alleged that the cover-up around Biden was "worse" than the Watergate scandal.

In May 14, a spokesperson for Biden shut down the allegations in Jake's book and said "evidence of aging is not evidence of mental incapacity" and that 82-year-old had been "a very effective president," according to BBC.

Jake Tapper attends the Jake Tapper And Alex Thompson In Conversation With David Remnick: Original Sin - President Biden's 2024 Campaign at 92NY on May 27, 2025 in New York City.
Jake co-wrote a book about Biden's alleged mental decline, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again(Image: Getty Images)

Biden was recently revealed to be diagnosed with an "aggressive" prostate cancer on May 16, and he will undergo treatment.

Along with criticisms over Jake's latest book that released May 20, there was criticism over his apology to Lara.

"We live in a world where mainstream journalists are apologizing to members of the Trump family. Kill. Me. Now," Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan wrote on X formerly Twitter.

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the liberal MeidasTouch network, blasted Jake for "a contrived fake apology to Lara Trump to pander to MAGA hoping they might buy some books."

He added, "Packaged in pious sanctimony, smugness, & condescension, then sprinkled with a healthy dose of elitism. Gross."

The Irish Star reached to Jake Tapper's reps for comment.

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