Trump jokes mostly fall flat at WHCA dinner as he attacks journalists and political foes

Perhaps you can’t teach a new joke to an old president. For more than an hour, Donald Trump delivered a litany of familiar insults, offensive comments and inside-the-Beltway snubs as he made his first appearance as president at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Even he could tell, in real time, that many of his jokes were bombing. With 102 days to go until the midterm elections set the course for the rest of his term, Trump made only passing references to the congressional campaigns underway across the country. He didn’t use the primetime address to lift Republican candidates or highlight why his party deserves to maintain control of Congress. Instead, he delivered something of a forgettable speech – aside from the fact that he gave it at all. While the president began his remarks marking the heroism of law enforcement from the first dinner in April, when a gunman sought to storm the ballroom, he quickly segued into warmed-over lines and grievances that have been heard for much of the last decade. The only joke that stood out as new – and was legitimately funny – came at the expense of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as he joked the beef tenderloin served was “very special.” “Bobby Kennedy is right here,” Trump joked to laughter. “He personally ran over the cow in his car.” Aside from that, Trump’s words made clear that he, like most occupants of the office, is used to being surrounded by people who say, “Yes, Mr. President.” Tonight, some tough editing of the speech or a simple “No, Mr. President,” may have avoided a wave of negative reviews that flowed in afterward, many of which included one of his least-favorite descriptions: It was boring. President Donald Trump’s jokes have begun to fall flat as his tone has grown much more serious and bitter. Calling for term limits in Congress, the president attempted a lighthearted joke about a “senator I knew” who got a text from his wife asking for him to “come up the stairs and make love to me, and he said, ‘I can’t do both.’” “In other words, you can’t go up the stairs and make love,” Trump said. “Does anybody get that one?” With a hushed reaction from the audience of journalists, Trump said, “I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole, frickin, stupid speech they wrote.” Trump had spent the last several minutes before the joke attacking journalists and political foes, including Democratic leaders in Congress. CNN’s Betsy Klein, who is at the dinner, said a lot of people are on their phones or talking amongst themselves. Others are eating macarons from the dessert trays, going to the bathroom or mingling in the lobby After a relatively lighthearted start to his speech at the White House Correspondents’ association dinner, President Donald Trump shifted to attacking several journalists who have reported critically on him by name. Targets included CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper, as well as the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey. Earlier in the night, Trump had to look on as Collins and Dawsey were honored with journalism awards, something the president said had made for not an easy evening. The president reprised an old, sexist attack on Collins, claiming she does not smile. Several of her colleagues rushed to defend Collins in a live chat taking place on CNN’s air. “Fact check: Kaitlan smiles. Very friendly person. Just appropriately serious when doing her job,” senior reporter and fact checker Daniel Dale wrote in the chat. A CNN spokesperson had this to say: “Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional, trusted journalist being honored tonight for her depth of knowledge and the context she provides to audiences all over the world.” “She reports every day from the White House and the field with real strength and tenacity and skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day,” the spokesperson added. Trump jumps from jokes to weighing in on the war in Iran 1:04 • Source: CNN Trump jumps from jokes to weighing in on the war in Iran 1:04 President Donald Trump made a stark pivot from making jokes to touching on the war in Iran during remarks at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. “It’s all going extremely well. Don’t believe the fake news,” Trump said about the status of the war. He went on to say that the US has “hit Iran very hard” and that it no longer has Navy and Air Force capabilities. “They have very few drones left, despite what you see,” he said. Trump also added that he thinks Iran would “love to make a deal” but that he doesn’t “think they’re ready to.” “I don’t think it’s time yet, but I’m willing to to listen,” the president said.