I Want to Compliment President Trump

The annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner is an event I always look forward to watching. Since 1983, around the time I began watching, the entertainer for the event has been a comedian. And laughter is good medicine.

We seem to have lost a bit of the ability to make fun of ourselves. We take ourselves and most situations far too seriously. And that’s a shame, because the ability to laugh at oneself is a sign both of good character and good temperament.

And perhaps because good character and good temperament are important things in a leader, I liked when the President of the United States, the most powerful person on the planet, voluntarily arrived at the dinner to be roasted by a comedian and to do some roasting in return. What better way to show the greatness of America. In America, after someone mocks his leader, he doesn’t go to jail. He goes home thinking, “Well that was fun.”

To be sure, some moments from dinners past went too far and some comedians missed the mark. Some presidents had better comedic instinct than others and some presidential writers were more skilled than others. And the WHCA is not without its own faults. Not unlike much of society, the dinner excluded people of color until the 1950’s and female correspondents until 1962. It took a proposed presidential boycott by President Kennedy to change the latter.

Kennedy did this at Helen Thomas’ request. Yes, that Helen Thomas – the correspondent who reported from the White House for almost 50 years, from early in the Kennedy administration to halfway through President Obama’s first term. Her career ended in controversy over comments she made about Israel, but there was much to like about her. She was Lebanese, which I am on my mother’s side, so that typically starts someone off pretty high in my book. She was an institution in the good way, something that grounds us to the past and binds us through inevitable change. The person at the podium may have changed, but the reporter dead center in the front row asking the first question did not. Policy may have shifted but who we were as a country did not. She asked tough questions of leaders, as a journalist should. But at the end of the briefing, whether to a Republican or a Democrat, she said the simple words, “Thank you, Mr. President.” A small gesture of civility and a sign of respect for the institution itself.

People have criticized the WHCA dinner because they argue it shows a too-cozy relationship between Washington media and elected officials, as if the ability to compartmentalize for a night is beyond the reach of reporters or politicians or that a night of socialization is hurtful rather than helpful. Like our ability to laugh at ourselves, we also seem to have lost the ability to compartmentalize. There is value in that skill. It allows people who disagree on some things to work together on others. It should be the primary tool in the toolkit of an elected official. Washington should have more socialization between those of different backgrounds and beliefs, not less.

I disliked the fact that President Trump never attended one of these dinners as President. After all, every president since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 had attended at least one. President Reagan even called in to the first WHCA dinner of his presidency while recovering at Camp David from his attempted assassination. And so, I was gratified to learn that President Trump was attending this year.

I do find it telling, though, that the first one he decided to attend was the first one of his two presidencies that the entertainer was not a comedian. Telling, though not surprising. One need only watch his reactions when he attended the dinner as a private citizen and became the target of then President Obama’s jokes to understand President Trump prefers to give rather than to take. And he was all too well prepared to give this past Saturday night, telling Norah O’Donnell of 60 Minutes, “I was gonna hit people really hard, with humor…really hard with humor.” It appears he was prepared to roast, just not to be roasted.

But the biggest reason I like the WHCA dinner and believe that the sitting president should attend is because of how presidents typically end their remarks. After the jokes end, the tone grows serious and the volume softens. And the ceremonial head of our Republic usually spends a few minutes talking about the importance of a free press, the ideals of America, or our shared responsibilities to freedom. And he often ends with some form of, “Thank you for inviting me.” You know, a small gesture of civility and a sign of respect to the institution itself.

This past Saturday night, instead of those that represent the fourth estate and the man who is in himself Article II of the Constitution coming together to share humor and a meal, a shooter attempted to run past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton with a pump-action shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. Once again the American people saw the President taken to the ground by brave Secret Service agents. Once again we saw the awkward scrum of agents rushing him from a place. And we watched those left behind dirtying their tuxedos and evening gowns by hiding under tables.

Thankfully no one was injured, save the agent whose vest saved his life. Thankfully this shooter was never going to succeed. He had the wrong weapons and a bad plan, and I thank God for that. He was no match for the bravery and reaction time of the law enforcement agents at the scene. May we always be that fortunate. Though, unfortunately, the taxpayer expense to provide that good fortune will continue to increase exponentially.

That future expense was increased further Saturday night by the media’s reporting of the event. Yes, their job is to keep us informed. But is it in the aftermath of the attack to show us floor plans of a venue used each year for this event, show us footage of which law enforcement or national guard units came in when and from where after the attack, or to show the confusion that necessarily accompanies post-attack action. Showing us all this also shows would-be bad guys all this. And it makes the President and anyone around him less safe in the process by showing how a future attacker might be able to capitalize on that chaos.

I want to take a moment to compliment President Trump. In these moments his instincts, which he touts as perfect in all things, are actually spot on. In these moments he seems to cast aside what would be an understandable internal fear and realizes that he is the office. He is the symbol of America. In these moments, whether now as the sitting president or then as a former president campaigning to regain the office, he realized the importance of getting up. In these moments he realized the importance of getting to a microphone to reassure the American people. In these moments he recognized how important it is to continue on, and if continuing on in that moment isn’t possible, then to regather in that same place as soon as practicable to symbolically reclaim that space from the attacker. And to his credit, though I disagree with much of his policy substance and all of his political style, he continues on doing his job. There is guts and bravery and audacity in that…something very American.

But the President should realize that in all moments he is the office. In all moments he is the symbol of our country. In all moments, how he comports himself matters and has repercussions. It is impossible to represent all Americans when he openly expresses hatred for some. It is impossible to “preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States” while spending his days trying to figure out how to circumvent it to achieve his ends. He is also his office when in that same 60 Minutes interview, he said to Norah O’Donnell, “you’re horrible people” and “you’re a disgrace.” To be sure, O’Donnell’s reading from an attacker’s manifesto, particularly its most salacious line, and then her feigning as if she didn’t know it would appear the line was referring to the President, was improper at best. We used to not give manifesto writers the airtime. But how a President responds, even to a question like that, matters. And calling media members (who are also his constituents) “horrible people” probably isn’t what we need in a bring-us-together moment.

My criticism isn’t reserved just for the President. As can only happen in the times we are now in, we spent the week in a great debate as to whether or not the President was the intended target or whether or not it was the would-be assassin that fired the bullet that struck the agent. Of course the President was the target; if a waiter or a news anchor or the Undersecretary of Something was the intended target, the assailant probably wouldn’t have chosen to make his job harder by choosing a time and a place where the President of the United States was in attendance with the entire security apparatus that accompanies him. And it doesn’t matter who fired the bullet that hit the agent because that bullet was fired as a direct result of the would-be assassin charging the security checkpoint. Fault for anything happening after that point lies with him, and he should be charged accordingly.

And right on cue, we have the conspiracy theories…the President arranged this attempt and all the attempts on his life to change the subject or make him look brave or to tie the left to political violence or to justify his White House ballroom plans. And right on cue, the right has forgotten the left has suffered its own political violence and the left has forgotten that they too use language that is beyond the pale. All forget that minds not properly grounded can easily be incited to political violence by careless, oft-repeated words. And both sides, while stirring the pot, fail to find consensus to get enough money into mental illness or come up with sensible gun regulation.

But the biggest crime of the week is that our leaders continue to fail the American people by representing their party instead of their constituents. Many Republican Senators and Representatives have since the shooting been busy parroting the need for a ballroom at a $400 million price tag. Democrats caused a 76 day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in protest of overzealous immigration enforcement. I agree enforcement was overzealous but how effective is the Democrats’ tactic when one considers the agencies within DHS they were seeking to change were the only parts of DHS that already had the funding they needed. But sure, let’s have TSA agents continue to work stressed out about when their checks will stop…again. But Republicans are to blame for at least the last 30 days of the shutdown; Speaker Mike Johnson, who will go down in history as a lapdog instead of a leader, took 30 days to finally pass this week the Senate-approved measure to fund DHS.

Today the war with Iran reached the 60 day mark. Legally that requires Congress to either pass a resolution authorizing the war or hostilities must end. They did not pass such a resolution. To be determined what next week will bring. But if Congressional Republicans do not start reigning in President Trump, it will be their fault not his that we Republicans lose the majority in 2026. And no amount of governors like Ron DeSantis, looking to secure their next job by forcing through congressional redistricting maps, will stop that.

Anyway, back to complimenting President Trump while I finally have an opportunity to so do. In closing his interview with Norah O’Donnell, he said in reference to rescheduling the WHCA dinner, “I hope were going to do it again. Norah, tell them to get it going…I think it’s very important that they do it again.” He’s right.