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In a Saturday early afternoon presser on the coronavirus, President Trump assured the nation that “there was no need to panic,” even though the illness claimed a victim in Washington State. But immediately afterwards he went to the Conservative Political Action Conference, and morphed from Comforter-in-Chief to the Comedian-in-Chief. And the audience loved him.
Of course, they were his biggest fans. But on the other hand, President Trump can be just plain funny.
He spoke for 90 minutes at CPAC, talking up the successes that his supporters loved: appointing conservative judges, tax cuts, trade deals, and killing terrorists. But then he started riffing on his political enemies.
On Joe Biden vs. Bernie Sanders:
“Everyone knows he’s not a communist. With Bernie, there’s a real question about that. The difference is Joe’s not going to be running the government. He’s just going to be sitting in a home some place.”
And on Mike Bloomberg’s first debate appearance — Bloomberg, whom Trump said “writes checks like a drunken sailor:”
“That was probably the worst debate performance in the history of presidential debates. It just shows you, you can’t buy an election. You got to bring the goods a little bit, too.”
Trump even took a shot at teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, joking about losing Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” designation to her:
“This year, I lost to Greta. I said, ‘Who?”
But the biggest laughs came when Trump went full comedian and mocked both Elizabeth Warren and Bloomberg, delivering not only jabs but some visual humor, too.
Plus, the NYT was indignant when Trump hugged and kissed the American flag at the close of his speech. How tacky!
“He even exited the stage by embracing the American flag in both of his arms, mouthing the words “I love you” and planting a kiss on the stars and stripes.”
While the liberal Twitter site NowThis appeared to be equally outraged at the Comedian-in-Chief:
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1233891950299738112
Now they can spit and fume all they want, but it just proves once again that the media has no sense of humor when it comes to Trump. Especially when the President goes into comedian mode, because his jabs are usually at their expense.
But does Trump care? Not one bit. In fact, he’s rather like this little guy, who kind of looks like he’s sporting Trump hair:
Credit: giphy.com.
What’s more, the media also don’t understand Trump’s humor, which, according to writer Dov Fischer, is pure NYC Outer Boroughs. In fact, he insists that “If you don’t understand the Borscht Belt, you’ll never understand Donald Trump.”
Fischer, a rabbi and attorney, writes in The American Spectator:
“Those who “get” that humor know precisely how to understand Trump, what to take seriously, what to brush off, and what deeper messages to take away from his speeches and tweets. Those who do not get the style and nuance end up completely misunderstanding him and then attacking him for communicating thoughts he never contemplated.”
And who “gets” that humor? Orthodox Jews, who count among some of Trump’s biggest supporters, according to Fischer. And why do they love him?
“When, all kidding aside, President Trump makes a serious promise, you can disregard the surrounding bombast and exaggerations while knowing that, unlike any other politician in our lifetimes, he will do everything he humanly can, within the constraints of the American Constitution’s checks and balances, even amid non-stop enemy fire, to keep his word and get it done.”
Now I’m neither a New Yorker nor Jewish, so I often roll my eyes when Trump exercises his brand of humor. But I have to say, the man can be funny. He has great delivery and a comedian’s timing. And you must admit, the imitation of “Mini Mike” at the podium is downright hilarious, even if the media huff and puff indignantly. You must also admit — we could all use a laugh or two right now.
Featured image: Joel Polowin/flickr/cropped and altered/CC BY-NC 2.0.
Charles N. Steele says: I laughed hard enough at that clip that my wife started telling me to calm down. Had me thinking: the last time we last had a president who seemed to have a sense of humor (Reagan) it also outraged his critics. Maybe there’s some reason for that – the critics tend to be people who idolize the govt; Reagan and Trump don’t, hence appear “unseemly” to critics.
Completely unsurprising that people who call the American flag a symbol of racism & oppression and enjoy trampling & burning it find President Trump’s embrace of it “bizarre.” They are quite bizarre themselves.
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