The President of the United States, Donald Trump, made his annual appearance at the Alfalfa Club dinner, a black-tie event held at the Capital Hilton Hotel on Saturday. Trump appeared to treat the exclusive dinner like a comedy set, and he ended up embarrassing himself as his awkward attempt at making jokes fell flat in front of the guests.
The event is held every year and hosts roughly 200 guests from the business and political worlds. The event remains off the record and doesn’t allow press to maintain confidentiality.
Most of his jokes received little to no response from the audience, which included several figures Trump has had a falling out with, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, whose bank is being sued by the Trump administration; David Rubenstein, whom Trump fired as the head of the Kennedy Center, and Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman who is being investigated by the Justice Department.
At a black-tie dinner at the Alfalfa Club, President Trump joked that Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren was set to attend “but couldn’t find her reservation.”
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According to The Washington Post, Trump acknowledged the side-eyes from the audience at the outset. He opened his speech with, “So many people in the room I hate. Most of you I like. Who in the hell thought this was going to happen?” However, instead of easing up the tension, he ended up hearing crickets in response.
Next, Trump indicated that he needed to wrap up his speech quickly to enjoy the “invasion of Greenland,” a poorly made comment in light of the tension between the U.S. and Greenland. He said, “We’re not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it,” he said. “It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state. I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd.”
When joking about his foreign policy didn’t work, he resorted to poking fun at Kevin Warsh, who has been nominated by Trump to be the next Federal Reserve chairman. “If he doesn’t lower interest rates, I’m suing his a– off…I’m kidding,” he commented.
When contacted for further comments after the event, Trump brushed it off by saying, “It’s a joke…a comedy night.” He said, “Oh, he’s going to lower them. … I hope he’s going to lower it, but you know, he’s gonna have to do what he wants to do… He’s a very high-quality person. He should have no trouble getting through.”
Trump: In a way, I’m jealous. In a way, I’m upset. There are a couple of people in the room, I can’t stand them, and they’ve become very rich. There’s nothing I can do about it. I would screw them if I could pic.twitter.com/azbKoVrgA1
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He referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” and said she must not have found her seat at the event and alluded to a running insult about the former President Joe Biden being puppeteered by Jill Biden. He also mentioned having “the nastiest, most vicious joke about John Roberts,” the Supreme Court Chief Justice.
During the same week, there was an arrest of journalist Don Lemon, ballots seizures in Georgia over fraud claims, and Trump’s defense of an ICE agent involved in the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Trump’s jokes flopped so badly that at one point, he threatened to walk off the stage.
