March 4, 2018

"So many people have been leaving the White House. It’s invigorating since you want turnover. I like chaos. It really is good."

"Who’s going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller, or Melania?... That’s terrible. But you love me right, honey? She said, behave! By the way she has been an incredible first lady."

Trump at the Gridiron Dinner. No video. Quotes picked up at Politico.

Also: "I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un, I just won't. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem not mine."

Ultra-obvious "Apprentice" joke: "In one job I had to manage a cutthroat cast of characters, desperate for TV time, totally unprepared for their roles and their jobs and each week afraid of having their asses fired, and the other job I was the host of a smash television hit."

There was some question whether Trump would be able to do this event properly, since traditionally the President is self-deprecating. But Trump had the perfect meta-joke: "I told them not to worry, nobody does self-deprecating better than I do."

But enough about self-deprecation. The best joke was the meanest one: "This might be the most fun I’ve had since watching your faces on election night."

ADDED: On that last, meanest joke, I say (in the comments):
I wonder if he goes to YouTube and watches the many long clips of election news coverage. I myself have done this many times, to relive the real-time experience that was too weird to fully absorb at the time (plus it got late and I went into just-end-it-already mode). There are some priceless moments -- notably Stephanie Cutter and Andrea Mitchell.
I'm asked for a link, but what I watch is unedited footage. Here's one example:

64 comments:

Kevin said...

The press keeps hoping he'll turn into a "normal" president so they can label him and leave him for dead.

So what does he do last week? Consider raising the age to purchase a gun to 21, and enact steel tariffs.

How many of them saw that coming? And how much does it undercut their argument that they know exactly who Trump is and why he must be removed from office?

He knows their game and refuses to play it.

Matt Sablan said...

That last bit about their faces? That was kind of funny.

tim in vermont said...

BLOL, Belly Laugh Out Loud.

Kevin said...

Likewise, Kim has always been able to play the crazy card, while holding the US to international norms. He knows exactly how for they can go before they run afoul of past precedent or make the Chinese nervous.

The first thing Trump does is obliterate past precedent and make the Chinese nervous.

You know why people keep leaving the White House - and will continue to do so? Because they can only inform his policies, not design and enact the ones they wish were in place.

Once they realize they are truly there to serve the president rather than make themselves more powerful, the job gets much less interesting than the alternatives.

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Once they realize they are truly there to serve the president rather than make themselves more powerful, the job gets much less interesting than the alternatives.

You mean like if a reporter suddenly were made by his publisher to understand that he was there to serve the people, he would leave his job in a huff? That sounds right.

Matt Sablan said...

Also: I'll say something here I'm sure I've said elsewhere.

I like that now that we have a Republican back in office, government officials from the highest to the lowest are being held to account. Obama and Bush's major personnel problem was they were overly loyal to bad subordinates (Obama more than Bush, since Bush knew not to push some of his worse nominations too hard and left Libby out to dry). Trump, for all the news claims about his obsession with loyalty, has been willing to cut people who needed cutting, no matter their ties to him.

I just hope when we get another Democrat in office, the media remembers good government as a value, as opposed to the homeless, which they tend to forget whenever a Democrat is in office.

Matt Sablan said...

"You mean like if a reporter suddenly were made by his publisher to understand that he was there to serve the people, he would leave his job in a huff?"

-- Reporters aren't there to serve the public. That's just a lie they tell themselves and cute people at the bar to inflate their self esteem and try and get lucky.

Ann Althouse said...

"This might be the most fun I’ve had since watching your faces on election night."

I wonder if he goes to YouTube and watches the many long clips of election news coverage. I myself have done this many times, to relive the real-time experience that was too weird to fully absorb at the time (plus it got late and I went into just-end-it-already mode). There are some priceless moments -- notably Stephanie Cutter and Andrea Mitchell.

Ralph L said...

Steve Miller wants to put the band back together and take it on the road.

Tank said...

Ann Althouse said...

***

There are some priceless moments -- notably Stephanie Cutter and Andrea Mitchell.


Link?

Matt Sablan said...

He probably has Hall of the Trumpen King queued up right after the Gorilla channel.

Wince said...

"As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem not mine."

Self deprecating humor and Nixon's "madman" theory of international negotiation in one quip!

Freder Frederson said...

"I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un, I just won't. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem not mine."

Is this an intentional joke? Because the way it is phrased, it is unclear who the madman is.

Ralph L said...

Little slow this morning, Freder

Freder Frederson said...

How many of them saw that coming? And how much does it undercut their argument that they know exactly who Trump is and why he must be removed from office?

I don't know about them, but I wasn't the least bit surprised. Just like offering to sign any immigration bill put before him and then reneging, the gun purchase age and accusing others of being afraid of the NRA, was posturing for the camera. He backed down the very next day after a dinner with NRA lobbyists. As for tarriffs, he has been pushing for them forever. Unfortunately, he has apparently decided to stop listening to his saner advisors.

cremes said...

Is this an intentional joke? Because the way it is phrased, it is unclear who the madman is.

We need a smarter class of Lefty on this board. Sheesh.

whitney said...

You've got to go watch The Young Turks compilation from election night. It's about 6 or 7 hours condensed into 30 minutes and it is worth watching the whole 30 minutes. I've seen it several times

Anonymous said...

cremes, I've been asking for that for years. But every Christmas when I look under the tree.....
Just another damn train-set.

SayAahh said...

"We need a smarter class of Lefty on this board."

Or one with much less confirmation bias.

Ann Althouse said...

"Link?"

I watched hours-long segments of the coverage.

Try googling the name with "election night."

a

Ralph L said...

I tried duckducking it, and the first isolated one had had its account removed by youtube.
Andrea's power is even greater than her wrinkles.

M Jordan said...

There will never be another president like Trump. We must savor the moment.

Tank said...

Fun! And we thought we were going to get the big V. LOL!

mockturtle said...

Also: "I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un, I just won't. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem not mine."

Well played, Mr. President!

Curious George said...

You want fun, watch Rachel Maddow on election night. She looked like she ate a bad clam.

Bay Area Guy said...

CHAOS!

And those election night clips of Leftist media types losing their minds still gives me great joy.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Is this an intentional joke? Because the way it is phrased, it is unclear who the madman is."

Well, actually, the obvious - Trump is telegraphing to lil Rocket Man in NORK that he has nothing on Trump when it comes to Cra Cra. The difference is that Trump has the strongest military in the world, and we are starting to build it back up again, with the strongest economy. The joke format, of switching the ending from the expected, is well known, and thus works for those of us who take him less literally, quite well. Indeed, I have used just that joke format on multiple occasions, though, obviously not in such exalted company.

As noted above, this was aimed directly at the NORK dictator, who has used his crazy to intimidate opponents and allies around the world, and to maintain power within. The guy who uses antiaircraft guns to execute (and physically obliterate) political opponents. Not going to work with Trump in the White House. He has dealt with the type before, and knows how to call them out.

mockturtle said...

Cremes observes: We need a smarter class of Lefty on this board. Sheesh.

We do. Poor Cookie is holding the fort single-handedly.

Curious George said...

"We need a smarter class of Lefty on this board. Sheesh."

Inga leaving at least raised the average.

tim in vermont said...

Cookie alone, as tcross might have said, is sufficiently cynical to the moment.

Earnest Prole said...

I myself have done this many times, to relive the real-time experience that was too weird to fully absorb at the time (plus it got late and I went into just-end-it-already mode).

What the videos cannot capture is the real-time experience of watching the Times' election needle tick steadily toward the red. Apparently lefties are still traumatized:

The New York Times Needle Is Killing Us

“The data geeks who write for the New York Times’ Upshot have found a perfect mechanism to drive their readers into the deep depths of madness on election night. I’m talking about the needle, of course.”

“Many associate the dial with showing Hillary Clinton with a roughly 70 percent chance of victory on election night. The needle then ticked steadily in Trump’s favor as returns came in throughout the night.”

Curious George said...

My favorite is watching the smug predictions of lefties followed immediately by the announcement of a network calling the state for Trump.

Hell remember Inga doing the drive by here with here nasty rape joke?

roesch/voltaire said...

If you have to ask a wife if she still loves you that leaves the door open for doubt, but of course Trump always asks and needs his base to proclaim their love and they seem to have no doubt.

Gahrie said...

but of course Trump always asks and needs his base to proclaim their love and they seem to have no doubt.

At least they don't worship him like Obama's supporters worshiped Obama.

mockturtle said...

If you have to ask a wife if she still loves you that leaves the door open for doubt

Do You Love Me? From Fiddler on the Roof.

Curious George said...

"roesch/voltaire said...
If you have to ask a wife if she still loves you that leaves the door open for doubt, but of course Trump always asks and needs his base to proclaim their love and they seem to have no doubt."

Another clueless lefty. Sad.

Michael K said...

of course Trump always asks and needs his base to proclaim their love and they seem to have no doubt.

No, he just has to check with the haters like you. If they seem to hate him less, he needs to check his work and maybe make a few adjustments.

Trump is defined by his enemies. All we need to do is check on your hate level and we know he is on the right track.

MadisonMan said...

I like listening to LZ Granderson in that linked video. He knew his stuff, that's for sure!

reader said...

I stayed up late election night watching the different channels and enjoyed the schadenfreude. The clip that I forwarded to my husband after the election is one I found through HotAir.

“Jonathan Pie” on why Trump won and the left lost

Matt Sablan said...

Do you love me now that I can dance?

glenn said...

Now you are going to make go watch all those election night videos again. Damn that was fun. And I’m no fan of Trump.

Anonymous said...

Ralph L: Little slow this morning, Freder

He's halfway to getting the joke, don't discourage him.

Anonymous said...

Whereas r/V will never get the joke.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Silicon valley is full of people who used to have senior positions at Tesla, that darling of future-thinkers. When I first realized this i asked some why, and the answer was that Elon Musk is extremely difficult to work for.
History repeating, of course- Apple and Steve Jobs was just the same.
So I don't take anything peculiarly negative from stories of folk leaving the White House. Sounds like SOP to me.

cronus titan said...

After googling Andrea Mitchell and election night, I was reminded that Rick Santelli took a quality shot at Mitchell during Meet the Depressed. They were all whining about how happy Russia was that Trump won, and Santelli told Mitchell that "on Election Night, I never saw you so unhappy. You pick sides. Everybody picks sides." The group had a collective meltdown.

Good times, good times.

John henry said...

I think President Trump is masterful on gun control of late. We have a bunch of gun grabbers who are trying to take guns away. They are not getting a lot of press.

By President Trump talking about it, and talking about raising the age, he gets a lot of people spun up with tens of thousands joining or rejoining NRA. This not only gives NRA more political clout but reinforces to pols up for election the clout it does have.

Re the due process, he seems to be supporting the current process. Someone can go to court and get an order to take away someone's guns. Perhaps a lawyer here can answer the technical definition but that seems like a lack of due process since it can be done without my defending myself.

They get the order, take the guns and THEN due process kicks in so I get a chance to defend myself and get my guns back.

And, after Parkland, President Trump released 100m US Army surplus assault rifles into the US population. And 100m assault pistols are due to be released soon. (If you grant me the latitude of calling the 45 and "assault pistol")

He hardly seems wishy-washy on our 2A rights.

And, by the way he does it, it makes it harder for the anti-gunners to push back. President Trump can say "Hey, I'm on your side. I'm trying to work with you on this." Since they cannot agree to anything President Trump wants, ever, no matter what, they wind up behind the 8 ball. See what he did with the dreamers for a similar example.

Nope, not tired yet.

John Henry

Pete said...

Ha! These are great jokes! Obama didn't seem to know the definition of self-deprecation - his humor was always directed outward, to his critics. Trump and his madman joke works on so many levels, he is, indeed, playing four dimensional chess.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, you watched 8 1/2 hours of election night coverage? Better you than me, lady, better you than me.

David-2 said...

These jokes recounted in the post are pretty damn funny. Probably because Trump knows how to delegate and he probably hired a good comedy writer.

Whereas Obama hired someone to whom he could reasonably say: "And you know I'm going to be a better comedy writer than my comedy writer."

Yancey Ward said...

The thing I found most amusing about the election night coverage was the seeming inability to do basic math in many of the cases. When Trump was up to 244 electoral votes that night, most of the networks, of course, had refused to call even Wisconsin, much less Michigan and Pennsylvania. The only other uncalled states at that point were Minnesota, Alaska, and Arizona. Trump was going to win Alaska with no doubt whatsoever, and he was very likely to win Arizona at that point of the night, too, which would put him at 258. All he needed at that point was Wisconsin to throw the election to the House at a minimum. Only Fox's coverage made the point that the election was Trump's if he won only Wisconsin that night, and they were the only network to call the state even before Trump's victory speech. It was just funny to watch apparently well educated people to pretend not to be able to add and subtract in an attempt to create paths to 270 for Clinton that didn't exist at that point of the night.

David-2 said...

Actually now I think of it Obama probably had his genius speechwriters - and Ben Rhodes of course - jumping all over the opportunity to showcase their wit by writing his jokes. Which is why his jokes were, as Pete says, directed outward towards his critics, and were also just mean and nasty, not funny.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
readering said...

Remember, Althouse repeated the funny jokes. His remarks also included a lot of straight out insults of political opponents. His good writers can't cover for his tin ear.

readering said...

I skipped tv election night for a Tuesday discount movie night: Busanhaeng. Instructive.

tim in vermont said...

Obama, of course, didn't have a tin ear because all the insulting remarks he made were deserved!

John henry said...

I was partying in the grand ballroom of the trump hotel in Chicago on election night.

What a party that was!

It was put on by a machinery company and non-political but I still love being able to say where I was. The hotel set up about 40 chairs and a big tv in the foyer so we'd eat a little then rejoice a little.

Third time I've been to this party. The Trump Hotel knows how to do this. Makes Bellagio look like a Wendy's by comparison.

John Henry

eric said...

I watched a lot of the linked video. Skipped through a lot, but watched a lot.

I found it to be very disturbing and disconcerting.

As you start the video, everyone is laughing and joking and enjoying themselves. And this attitude keeps up for some time. Also, the electoral count moves pretty steadily as the night wears on. Clinton even takes the lead at one point and they keep the count in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

Then it gets to 215 Clinton and 244 Trump and it just stays there for hours. It changes for a little bit after Maine is finally decided, then it disappears altogether.

It's like, once they realize it's over for Clinton, without officially calling it, they just remove the graphic.

And I found myself thinking deeply of conspiracy theories.

Do they know that these traditionally blue states are doing everything they can to pull it out for Clinton? Finding votes, trashing other votes, doing recounts, whatever they can to pull it out for Clinton and the media is doing their part to see to it that no one calls it for Trump and creates the feeling Trump won?

From the night of the election until now, the media has continued a narrative where not only did Trump kinda sorta maybe not win yet, but, is he really a legit president?

I hated watching that. Makes me worry for this nation.

Jim at said...

His remarks also included a lot of straight out insults of political opponents.

Must've picked it up from his predecessor. Personally.

Luke Lea said...

I like that he put Stephen Miller in the same class with his wife. If he bails on immigration reform that would be in the same class as her bailing on him. In other words, The End.

readering said...

Here's where to go for a transcription of Trump's Gridiron remarks. See why he picked the non-televised event:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/read-trump-says-rep-maxine-waters-needs-an-iq-test-at-gridiron-dinner

Yancey Ward said...

Waters would find a way to fail an IQ test.

Earnest Prole said...

I found it to be very disturbing and disconcerting. It's like, once they realize it's over for Clinton, without officially calling it, they just remove the graphic. And I found myself thinking deeply of conspiracy theories.

Disturbing and disconcerting? The electoral college count is displayed prominently and regularly in the video until 7:43. It disappears for a grand total of three minutes before Mike Pence introduces Donald Trump, who informs us that Hillary has conceded the election. That must have been a hell of an anxious three minutes for you.

One of the surprises of my life has been to watch previously stoic, sensible, conservative American men grow increasingly excitable, as though they were little girls.

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