Former President Donald Trump has finally acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 election after persistently claiming victory for the past four years.
During an interview with journalist Ramin Setoodeh for his new book, Apprentice in Wonderland, the presumptive GOP nominee let it slip that Geraldo Rivera called him after he “lost the election” — though he then quickly corrected to say, “I won the election, but when they said we lost.”
Setoodeh shared a recording of Trump's statement with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace on Thursday, June 20.
Setoodeh, the co-editor-in-cheif of Variety, told Wallace that he and Trump were discussing the latter's falling out with Rivera, his former friend.
This isn't the first time Trump slipped up and accidentally admitted defeat.
During a 2022 interview published by The Atlantic — where he engaged with a panel of historians working on a book about his presidency — Trump shared an anecdote about his efforts to pressure South Korean President Moon Jae-in for more contributions to U.S. military support.
While rambling on, Trump remarked, "when I didn't win the election, he had to be the happiest..." before suggesting that other countries, such as Iran, China, and Russia, might have shared in that sentiment.
As OK! previously reported, the former president has already hinted at denying the 2024 election results months before a single vote is cast.
“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Trump told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday, May 1, when he was in the state for a rally. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
“If you go back and look at all of the things that had been found out, it showed that I won the election in Wisconsin,” Trump added. “It also showed I won the election in other locations.”
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The Biden campaign released a statement condemning the former president's remarks about the upcoming election.
“President Joe Biden has said, ‘You can’t love your country only when you win.’ But for Donald Trump, his campaign for revenge and retribution reigns supreme,” the campaign said. “In his own words, he is promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one,’ use the military against the American people, punish those who stand against him, condone violence done on his behalf, and put his own quest for power ahead of what is best for America."
“Bottom line: Trump is a danger to the Constitution and a threat to our democracy," the message concluded. "The American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”