The contrast could not have been starker on the occasion of the 100th day of the Trump presidency. In Washington D.C. the media elite and a group of Hollywood movers and shakers gathered at the White House Correspondents Dinner to listen to lame and offensive jokes about the president and to reassure one another that they were still relevant in the Age of Trump. 100 miles or so away, the president who was being mocked in Washington was holding a full to overflowing rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he gave it right back to the media and his other enemies with interest.
The mood at the WHCD was subdued and strained. The feeling inside the rally hall was raucous and enthusiastic.
The gentle reader is invited to determine who won the night.
In times past the White House Correspondents Dinner has been the occasion for some good-natured ribbing of the president followed by POTUS himself responding in kind. But the mutual hatred felt between the Washington media elites and the president made that impossible this year.
Sensing what was in store for him had he attended the dinner, President Trump decided to pull a Jedi-level snub and not only decline to show up but to hold a rally in nearby Pennsylvania, forcing some of the media to miss the WHCD to cover the event.
The effect was to take the spotlight off of the dinner and onto Trump handing out red meat attacks on his enemies to a crowd of cheering supporters.
It did not help that the entertainment at the White House Correspondents Dinner was incredibly lame. The comedian who was hired, apparently appearing on the post-Jon Stewart “The Daily Show,” made unfunny jokes that referenced Nazis, racial slurs, and the Russians.
The performance made one yearn for the subtle wit of Stephen Colbert.
Meanwhile, Trump had them on their feet just saying how horrible the media, the Democrats, and everyone else who opposed him were. The president knows that the rage against the elites that propelled him to the Oval Office is still there. The Democrats are playing into that narrative by opposing mindlessly everything that Trump is seeking to accomplish, from the wall to the repeal of Obamacare, to tax reform.
The more they push back, the angrier Trump’s base of support gets.
The elite, mainstream media could serve itself well by getting over its collective hurt feelings and coming to terms with the fact that the majority of Americans, as reflected in a number of recent polls, hates them. They trust Trump to be more truthful than the media. Somewhere both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan are smiling, albeit with a little rueful envy.
