President Donald Trump bombed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Friday night. He knew he was bombing, too, and he even tried to meta-joke his way out of it.
But no. Even the president’s jokes about his bad jokes fell flat, and he was widely ridiculed for the comedy routine afterward.
Members of the media mocking the leader’s dismal performance on live TV and all across the internet? In some other countries, that’s a criminal offense. But in the US, it’s the norm, so maybe Trump’s speech unwittingly underscored the theme of the dinner: America’s robust First Amendment protections.
In a rambling hour-long speech, Trump insulted journalists by name, repurposed old nicknames for political opponents, made a strange number of fat jokes that weren’t funny at all, and sounded mad at his unnamed writers for giving him weak material to work with. “Does anyone understand this stuff?” he said at one point, and the answer was generally no.
Some of Trump’s remarks were “vicious,” as press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised. But more than anything, the speech was just… boring.
