No. of Recommendations: 8
Iran, yes, but I mean at the White House correspondents dinner.
‘Is This Supposed to Be Fun?’ Trump Hurls Insults at Correspondents’ Dinner
President Trump gave the keynote speech as relations between his administration and the press continue to deteriorate.
The meandering speech he gave for the next hour inside the Waldorf Astoria, the former site of the Trump International Hotel, was full of ad hominem attacks against his political enemies, scripted jokes that fell flat and familiar refrains about the war against Iran and the construction of the White House ballroom.
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One particularly awkward moment played out when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer welcomed a group of reporters from The Wall Street Journal to the stage to accept an award for their “courageous reporting on President Trump’s past relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein” that “triggered the release of the so-called Epstein files.”
Mr. Blitzer reminded the crowd that “Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Journal, revealing reporter Khadeeja Safdar’s home address. Her family had to be relocated. The Journal was kicked off of Air Force One.”
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As the hour stretched on, his speech turned harshly political and quite vicious. He mocked the appearances and careers of individual reporters, some of whom were in the room, but much of the speech had little to do with the press. He widened the aperture to target his longtime political enemies, politicians and celebrities who had nothing to do with the dinner.
“I hate some people,” Mr. Trump said as he started in on Adam Schiff. Others who came in for a drubbing included Rosie O’Donnell, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Chris Christie and Jerry Nadler. The president wasn’t telling jokes so much as he was repeating attack lines one hears at a standard MAGA rally.
There was little laughter in the room as the president’s speech took on a harder edge. Not many people chuckled when he compared the “really beat-up faces” of UFC fighters with those of Bette Midler, Jane Fonda and Bruce Springsteen.
Mr. Trump seemed to realize he was losing the room. After a joke he told about the gerontocracy on Capitol Hill bombed, he said: “That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole fricking stupid speech. It was the only good one, and that went down with not exactly great laughter.”
He threw his arms up in exasperation and people started to laugh again.
As his speech reached its conclusion, he pulled out a hat and with a theatrical flourish plopped it on his head. It said, “Trump 2028.” Some clapped. Others laughed. Most of the reporters just stared straight ahead.
