Jake Tapper Can’t Hold Back Laughter at Trump’s Response to GOP Losses

Jake Tapper did the best he could biting back laughter while hearing President Donald Trump’s response to Republicans’ midterms losses live on CNN.In the midst of Election Night 2026, Tapper’s colleague Kaitlan Collins read off some comments she was getting from White House officials as Trump and his team watched the results come in and things looking increasingly bleak for the GOP. After so much campaigning across the country, Trump decided to play the blame game with the candidates he endorsed, which got an audible laugh out of the CNN anchor live on air. White House official reacts to the results so far tonight: “President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot." pic.twitter.com/CWWk0OcM8O— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 4, 2026 “Despite the president telling voters for the better part of two months to act like he was on the ballot tonight, when they went to cast their ballot, to get out to vote, The White House is now casting blame on some of the candidates that the president hand-picked to run in these races,” Collins said. “A White House official just texted me and said, ‘President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballots than the candidates did themselves.’” She added: “They said despite what they are seeing playing out in these races right now where a lot of those hand-picked candidates are struggling or have lost in some of these races they said the mood at the White House was defiant tonight. They added this quote: ‘President Trump was not on the ballot and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot’” At that last quote, Tapper could not help but let out a laugh from offscreen. “OK,” he muttered as Collins reiterated that Trump and his administration are pinning these GOP candidate struggles and potential losses on those running while saying the president did all he could and more. Shortly after, once the House was widely projected to go to the Democratic Party in a governing majority, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to echo the sentiment publicly. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote.