Donald Trump, America’s leading dabbler in Obama conspiracy theories, was in for a serious comedy skewering at the White House Correspondents Association dinner Saturday night. Both President Obama and Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers went after Trump in their speeches, leaving the audience in stitches.
Trump, it seems, did not appreciate the attention.
Here’s the kind of thing Trump faced from Obama (transcript via the White House):
Donald Trump is here tonight! (Laughter and applause.) Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. (Laughter.) … [A]ll kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. (Laughter.) For example — no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice — (laughter) — at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team cooking did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn’t blame Lil’ Jon or Meatloaf. (Laughter.) You fired Gary Busey. (Laughter.) And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night.
Meyers was much harder on Trump in his remarks:
Donald Trump has been saying that he’s going to run for president as a Republican - which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke. Donald Trump often appears on Fox, which is ironic, because a fox often appears on Donald Trump’s head.
New York caught up with Trump after the event and asked him about the jokes.
“Some were fun, but not the greatest,” he told the magazine.
TPM ran into Trump on his way out of the event at the Washington Hilton.
“It was very good,” was all Trump would say of Obama’s speech as he walked to his car, declining to take any followup questions.
Inside the room, reports say Trump — who was at the dinner as a guest of the Washington Post — was visibly ticked off by the mocking he took from the podium.
Trump’s “mood shifted from playing along to unvarnished anger,” New York reported, citing “multiple guests who sat near Trump.” Politico’s Mike Allen wrote Trump “sat stone-faced” during Meyer’s speech.
The scene “was so awkward that some folks at his table stopped laughing and applauding,” Allen reports.
Trump called into “Fox And Friends” Sunday morning and talked about his experience in the audience. Transcript from Politico’s Maggie Haberman):
“Well, I really understood what I was getting into — I didn’t know that I’d be virtually the sole focus,” Trump said. “I guess when you’re leading in the polls that sort of thing tends to happen. But I was certainly in a certain way having a good time listening. I don’t think the American people are having a good time with $5 gas. … I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we’re all” having fun at a gala.
Trump took a direct shot at Meyers, too.
“I thought Seth Meyers — his delivery frankly was not good,” Trump said. “He’s a stutterer.”
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