Three months ago, the White House Correspondents Association staged their annual dinner in DC. For the first time ever, Donald Trump agreed to show up. Halfway through the dinner, some armed man tried to enter the ballroom and shots were fired. The whole thing was probably not what it seemed, and even the cover story made zero sense. Same with all of the other incidents around Trump. Whatever it was, Trump and his people were removed from the dinner and everything was abruptly canceled. Well, on Friday, the WHCA staged a second dinner and Trump came to this one as well. With the absence of outside drama, Trump took center stage and promptly bombed. His speech was horrible, people are absolutely sick of him, and his idiotic “Trump 2028” hat went over like a lead balloon.
It was ten minutes into President Donald Trump’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Friday night when the event began to feel like a black-tie hostage situation. Trump was speaking at the dinner for the Washington press for the first time, and despite early signs he would stay on script, the speech soon devolved into a rambling and crass address that left the room uncomfortably silent, guests scrolling on their phones or pushing dessert around their plates.
Presidential speeches at these dinners typically run around 20 minutes and follow a formula: the president offers a lighthearted roast of the assembled journalists and ends on a lofty note about the importance of a free press.
Donald Trump is not a typical president, of course. He spoke for more than an hour, careening between his preferred topics, including the provenance of ballroom chandeliers and Chris Christie’s circumference. “It’s hard to escape the feeling that this dinner is more for Trump than the remaining journalists,” grumbled one member of the Washington press corps.
The room was silent for much of the speech. Even the White House efforts to stuff the venue with cabinet members and West Wing aides didn’t save Donald Trump from bombing. After he stumbled through the Christie cake riff, the camera cut to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who sat stone-faced. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had promised the speech would be “unifying” and “vicious.”
At moments, it was one of those things. Trump attacked Chuck Schumer, using “Palestinian” as a slur to mock the New York senator. He fixated on CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins’ looks, instructing her to smile more before delivering a clumsy joke comparing her to trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. He said Ilhan Omar should “get out of our country.” The ballroom remained mostly totally silent. When the camera cut to the room, attendees sat stone-faced or looked at their phones.
Trump seemed aware he was bombing. He repeatedly asked the silent crowd who had written his speech. After delivering an incomprehensible joke about a senator having sex with his wife, Trump tried to explain the punchline before asking the audience: “Does anybody get that? I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole freaking stupid speech.”
It may be unfair to blame the speechwriters, a team led by Ross Worthington that back in April had input from roast comic Tony Hinchcliffe. On Friday night, Trump’s delivery often appeared to be the problem. He sometimes stopped in the middle of pre-written jokes to riff about his perceived enemies, so much so that by the time he delivered the punchline it was unclear what the setup was. That kind of extemporaneous grievance-association may thrill the MAGA hat-wearing denizens of a Trump rally, but in a room full of journalists it fell uncomfortably flat.
“That kind of extemporaneous grievance-association may thrill the MAGA hat-wearing denizens of a Trump rally…” It doesn’t, actually. Those pitiful crowds at his emotional-support rallies aren’t even listening to him. They have barely listened to him for years now. They don’t care what he says or how he says it or what he actually meant. They only care that he’s a pathetic wannabe bully, like them. Anyway, glad to hear that Trump bombed yet again, and in front of his base – the DC press corps which enabled him for years and helped reelect him in 2024. Congrats to everyone.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
The Press has been absent or completely irresponsible.
Agreed. The press has largely abdicated its fourth estate role and, by turns, has been cowardly or craven under Les Moonves’s ethos that Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
Partners in crime.
You know, I’m glad Kaiser found this Vanity Fair piece because mainstream media barely hinted at the debacle of what he did & said. I went to NPR last night & they ‘reported’ as though this were a normal speech for this event. It wasn’t. There’s nothing normal about this guy & he’s getting worse. He’s not even trying to contain himself. His power has gone to his head. So disappointed in NPR.
Sigh, why is he still here. This needs to end now.
Probably because this whole universe is against us.
That is the absolute truth. DARKEST TIMELINE
It’s what the WHCA deserved for inviting him. I don’t think the President should ever be at this event. How can the press be chummy with the person they’re supposed to scrutinize? It doesn’t sound right to me. In this aspect, Richard Palmer was correct when he said that the royal rota is just like White House Press Corps.
Wow Palmolive gets it. The rota is court stenographers and PR for the royals and the DC press have been the same with orange turd. Even the ones who aren’t from made up media.
They have normalized a monster.
Maybe he gets it now but at the time he was likening the royal rota to the White House press corps he was fully in the rota and defending it against criticism that the royal press were sycophants.
It used to be worse. The administration would do little skits with reporters. That finally ended during the fallout over the Iraq war. Then it became just a speech.
I’m thrilled the codependent enabling press were forced to listen to that Clown they helped elect for over an hour. The correspondence from the NYT and Washington Post don’t seem capable of shame but surely they have a tough time looking each other in the eye. The Forth Estate has never looked so shabby.
Spot on Jenny. I hope they got a good whiff of him in that room. They are responsible for this mess. So their owners can build more data centers and poison the rest of us.
What Jenny said.
The WH press corps got what they deserved being forced to sit there while an evil, demented tyrant tortured them. Actually, though, they weren’t forced to sit there. They all could have stood up and left at any time. That no one did tells us all we need to know.
Right? They could have left at any time; better yet, not shown up in the first place. They definitely weren’t forced to shake his hand after accepting their awards, but they did. Gross.
I truly believe he and his cohorts will go for another term for him and they will rip up the constitution to do so. I can def see this being sent to ‘his’ supreme court with the expectation they will hand him another term. As long as he’s alive he will do whatever it takes to stay in office or at the very least set things up so one of his offspring takes over – he’s obsessed with having some sort of Trump version of the Kennedy family.
Scary times.
This is why November is so important. I will only be voting for Democrats, and will be praying for our Congress to find a spine. Get the vote out, get the vote out, Vote Blue!
They for sure want to, but physically I don’t think he’s making it to Christmas still able to communicate. The midterms are also going to be the only way to make sure there’s investigations and eventually prosecutions and jail time. Also, to sweep out the fascist enabling part of the D party. Midterms also might be the stress that does him in, it will definitely make the rats scatter.
Assuming Trump is still alive in 2028, and Republicans let him run again because they let him do whatever he wants, the Dems should just threaten to run Obama again in 2028. That would shut down the Republicans real quick.
The only reason I’m not freaking out about that is I just don’t think he will live that long, or at the very least whatever pure methamphetamine they’re shooting him up with before he speaks at a rally will no longer be effective enough.
Ooh, @Brassy Rebel, I like that! Threaten to run Obama against him!
Not that this is news, but he looks absolutely awful. Come on, Big Macs and no sleep, do your thing.
I work in the history field, and I actually had a nightmare last night about these supposed signs he’s putting in front of the Smithsonian museums essentially calling history “fake news.” I can’t with this anymore.
Agreed @Sue I am a Brit and have avoided watching Trump in action since he shamed himself by ganging up on Zelensky on live TV. I accidentally caught him wandering about looking slow and confused at this event and remarked to my husband that Trump was such a bad colour he looked like he’d been embalmed!
I agree with you Sue! He’s had that Jabba the Hut physique for a minute, but damn! That neck, that vacant look in his eyes, even the makeup can’t hide the fact he looks like a corpse.
I doubt that Trump will even remember he was President in 2028.
Same. They might be able to Mitch McConnell him for like two weeks, but that’s the most they’ll get out of him.
Reading this gave me a terrifying thought. If Trump runs again, perhaps with Don Jr as his running mate, and gets re-elected— while the Supreme Court is pretending to ponder the constitutionality of it all, then dies or “dies” before the Electoral College votes, the resulting mess would be unresolvable to anyone’s satisfaction. Years ago, Bannon, Trump’s advisor, talked about wanting chaos and destruction. We’re almost there.
I think we’re already in a quiet civil war. MAGA voters who wanted a president that would run the government “like a business “ might not have fully understood the impact that asset stripping by a demented racist whose “expertise” was grift and bankruptcies would have on them as well as on the rest of us.
Trump could nuke his own country and MAGA voters would still love him as long as brown people get hurt. They are evil.
He can’t run with jr. We don’t even need the SC to ponder it. (And I think that’d be too much even for them.) No states, at least blue ones, would allow it. And states still control elections. The courts, save scotus, are the ones still holding the line. Trump is trying to rope a dope them.
@Bqm, I HOPE you’re right, but I don’t have any guesses anymore re: just how far committed white supremacists who believe that Trump is fulfilling Biblical prophecy for a white Christian America might go. And there are arguably more solidly red states than blue, many with a disproportionate amount of political power. I’d like to agree with you @Bqm, but I really don’t know what is “too much even for them” anymore. I would have thought that someone in the throes of dementia would have been “too much” — and I would have been wrong.
Painting the Treasury Building, knocking down a wing of the White House to build a ballroom, signs on Smithsonian museums warning that some exhibits are “inaccurate “and destroying significant parts of what used to be Chocolate City are all things that even my wildly accommodating imagination would have thought would be “too much”.
Oops — wrong building. It’s the Old Executive Office Building that Trump wants to paint.
and nobody will say what this really is: this man’s cognitive impairment is worsening, he is confused, profane, and unable to stay on topic. he can’t speak with any intelligibility on any subject, he reverts to the same handful of catchphrases and insults that he knows by heart, just changes the names of the targets.
this is DEMENTIA, full stop. the constant swearing and sexual references are clear signs of disinhibition, meaning shrinkage of the part of the brain that regulates behavior. good thing he wears a diaper, otherwise he’d be incontinent all over the WH.
He sold his soul for a shot at fame
Catchphrase and wigs and the jokes are lame
He’s got no style, he’s got no grace
He’s banal and facile, he’s a fat waste of space
David Bowie, “Little Fat Man,” Ricky Gervais’s “Extras”
There’s video from this event of Kristen Welker (Meet the Press) yukking it up and laughing with Stephen Miller so they can act horrified and disgusted all they want but the truth is they are fine with everything happening. As long as they have access and are in the room and making money off Trump and the rest of these monsters they’ll go along with it. We are truly on our own.
This bastard! Will never stop pushing, scheming, lying and stealing. He is the symbol of America.
Unifying & vicious? A speech can’t be both. Typical. I saw clips on instagram. This guy has lost the plot & he’s not trying to hide it anymore. That was disgusting. And yeah, I think we can at least partially blame the writers. And those journalists? Accepting awards and then shaking his hand? WHY????? Walk on past the guy or turn in the other direction to get back to your seat.
Maybe the My Pillow guy can create a neck girdle for what Trump has got going on and call it the necksierre. Just a reminder that Trump ranks women based on their looks btw.
When I read “emotional-support rallies”, it made me scream. So accurate.
The argument being made by cult members is that no president could run for a third term if their previous terms were consecutive. This would -coincidentally I’m sure – rule out Obama (and Clinton) while trump would be eligible because his terms were separated by the Biden presidency. I have no idea how they think this would circumvent the Constitution’s clear wording on the subject. And unfortunately I think Barack – or Michelle – would not run anyway.