Correspondents’ dinner: Well, that was awkward
One dog barking: an occasional column by John Dineen
Imagine inviting someone who is notorious for being antagonistic and boorish toward your group, and when they speak … they are antagonistic and boorish toward your group.
As British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters would say, “This is on you.”
I’m guessing no one’s mind was changed about the wisdom of the White House Correspondents Association dinner after last Friday. Numerous journalists have long questioned the advisability of the event in its current form. A group of more than 500 journalists had written an open letter to the WHCA urging the group to, in essence, speak truth to power:
We believe the White House Correspondents Association should take stronger action by issuing — from the podium — a forceful defense of freedom of the press and condemnation of those who threaten that freedom, followed by a standing toast to the First Amendment and a pledge to continue upholding such a critical cornerstone of our democracy. Speak forcefully, in front of the man who seeks to undermine our country’s long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press.
Whether journalists spoke truth to power Friday evening was in the eyes and ears of the beholder. But indisputably Trump endured more truth — much of it not to his liking — than he likely encounters day to day in the White House.
Several civics lessons were administered during the evening on the meaning and importance of the First Amendment and freedom of the press — including one by AI-animated founders of the country and authors of the Bill of Rights.
Weijia Jiang, the outgoing president of the WHCA, offered this:
President Trump, I’ve covered you for a long time, and so have many reporters in this room. When we ask questions, you push back, you give us answers, and we push back. You have always been a deal guy. Well, that’s the deal, and the First Amendment is a done deal, and that’s what we toast tonight — the freedoms that brought us back together, even after they were threatened. So let’s raise a glass to what makes ours a beautiful country.
Jiang also shared her own journey to that moment: part of an immigrant family, growing up as the only Chinese residents in a West Virginia town of 5,500:
America the beautiful was never only about her landscapes or landmarks. It has always been about the promise that no matter where you come from, you get a shot at chasing your dreams.
If the virtues of free speech and of immigration weren’t enough, Trump had to endure an awards ceremony highlighting journalism that did little to portray him or his administration in a positive light.
As Brian Stelter described:
One of the most intriguing parts of the evening involved the correspondents’ association’s annual journalism awards presentation. Trump sat through multiple prizes, including one for “courage and accountability” in reporting that went to a team of Wall Street Journal reporters for their investigative work on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name.
“Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Journal, revealing reporter Khadeeja Safdar’s home address,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said while presenting the award.
Trump laughed and threw up his hands in an “aw shucks”-like gesture.
“Her family had to be relocated,” Blitzer continued. “The Journal was kicked off of Air Force One, but the reporters continued to file revelatory stories.”
Then it was Trump’s turn, speaking for about an hour, presumably entertaining his staff and his most ardent supporters. For the journalists in the room, it was an Hour of Cringe.
On her MS NOW show that ran while Trump was speaking, Jen Psaki laid out the long-established and honored template for presidential speeches at the correspondents’ dinner: a lot of self-deprecating humor, a few good-spirited pokes at some of the high-profile attendees, then a heartfelt pivot to the importance of the First Amendment and the vital role of journalists in a democracy.
Not the Trump way.
He began with brief, generic praise of the press and the First Amendment before meandering into familiar Trump territory: his planned White House ballroom, the recent U.F.C. fight on the White House lawn.
He then turned to insulting, among others, Sen. Adam Schiff, Rosie O’Donnell, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Rep. Jerry Nadler. He also mocked journalists Kaitlan Collins and Josh Dawsey, two of the evening’s honorees. Collins, of course, does not smile enough, in Trump’s view.
According to the New York Times:
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.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s teaser for Trump’s remarks might be seen as a microcosm for the evening, when she said the speech would be “a combination of unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious, all at the same time, if you can imagine that. One thing I can assure you, it will be entertaining.”
No, I cannot imagine that, Karoline. You cannot make those words go together and make any sense. Much like the dinner itself, where two incompatible views of the nation — one aspirational, one crude and demeaning — sat side-by-side for an evening.
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