CNN’s Jake Tapper Calls Out Trump for ‘Attacking the Kennedy Family’ Hours After Death of JFK’s Granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg: ‘Social Media Garbage’

Donald Trump stirred up controversy after taking to Truth Social to share takedowns of the Kennedy family, mere hours after the tragic death of JFK’s granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg at 35 years old. Schlossberg, a former climate and energy reporter at the New York Times, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after her daughter was born in 2024. 

One message that Trump re-posted read: “The Trumps have always been supporters of the arts. The Kennedys are supporters of the Kennedys.”

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Another noted: “They don’t raise money for it. They never show up. And the only Kennedy who has been there recently is a member of Trump’s cabinet.”

Trump’s post were not in reference to Schlossberg’s death but to the drama surrounding his continued takeover of the Kennedy Center. He renamed the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” in mid December to much controversy and blowback from various members of the Kennedy family. His takeover has resulted in several scheduled acts canceling their upcoming performances.

Even if Trump wasn’t addressing Schlossberg, many on social media found his timing tasteless and cruel as the Kennedy family mourns the loss of one of their own. CNN’s Jake Tapper called out Trump’s behavior on X, sharing screenshots of the president’s Kennedy bashing and writing; “In the early afternoon, ET, the Kennedy family announced that JFK’s granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg had died from cancer. A few hours later, President Trump re-posted some social media garbage attacking the Kennedy family.”

It’s not the first time this month Trump has made headlines for attacking a grieving family. The president earned widespread backlash for attacking Rob Reiner after the director’s death in early December. Trump alleged that Reiner’s death was “due to the anger he caused others” from being outspokenly anti-Trump. Reiner’s son, Nick, has been arrested in connection to his parents’ deaths. Trump later called the filmmaker a “deranged person” who “was very bad for our country.”

“The Rob Reiner thing is not funny,” Joe Rogan recently said in opposition to Trump’s behavior. “When you see it with no empathy, that’s when it’s hard to like. Listen, there’s no justification for what he did that makes any sense in a compassionate society. It’s no different than people that were celebrating when Charlie Kirk got shot. It’s the same kind of thing…  It’s so disappointing. It’s like why… if you say that privately that’s one thing, which is also crazy, but it’s so disappointing.”