The Tribune

with CHARLIE HARPER

HO HUM. Another dull week unfolded in Washington in the past seven days. And hardly anything of note concerned US president Donald Trump.

Except, of course, everything.

The most noteworthy event was a dinner party celebrating a 105th anniversary this year.  First held in 1921, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is an annual black-tie event notionally celebrating the First Amendment that guarantees to all Americans the right of free speech, journalism in particular, and democracy in general.

Most of the time, this dinner brings together the US President, top officials from his cabinet and the political opposition of the day, non-political celebrities and media, all in order to raise funds for journalism scholarships. An invitation to this event is always highly sought, and extensive television coverage reveals the lofty social standing of those lucky enough to be pictured in attendance.

The Correspondents’ Dinner has now achieved a distinctive standing in the ongoing, evolving history of Donald Trump in the spotlight of American politics. Trump has attended the dinner occasionally, including on Saturday night, when it certainly seems that someone tried to assassinate him. And 15 years earlier, when he was subjected to a public dressing-down that many people believe fueled both his hatred of his predecessor and his ultimately successful drive to succeed him.

More details are emerging every day, but it seems pretty clear that a gunman from California managed to evade the US Secret Service presidential protective team and get close enough to the hotel ballroom and to the president himself that when he fired off several shots, a full-blown emergency response ensued. Trump, his wife, Vice President JD Vance and his wife were all hustled backstage and whisked off to safety, as dozens of stunned guests dropped to the floor in fear for their lives.

The would-be assassin has now been formally charged with several serious felony offenses and an FBI investigation has revealed--in some of his social media posts and other writings--his views that certainly reflect a hatred for the president.

This is when the frenzied atmosphere that prevails around Trump and seemingly every single thing he does took over the internet. According to news reports, shortly after the chaos erupted on Saturday night, social media platforms were overwhelmed with conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination. As one wire service described events, “as is now customary after such incidents, prominent influencers filled the information vacuum with speculation in a bid for attention and followers.”

Various characters from across the political spectrum were fueling the confusion on platforms like X, Facebook, and TikTok. Some users claimed that the attack was “staged,” suggesting, without any conclusive evidence, that it was part of an apparent plot by Trump or others to distract from his bad polling numbers due to the war with Iran, gas prices, or the Epstein files. There is no shortage of complaints that can be laid at Trump’s doorstep these days.

The term “staged” was reportedly used in more than 300,000 posts on X alone by midday Sunday. A left-leaning friend, who is not ordinarily given to hyperbole, jumped all over such speculation. “I know this sounds crazy, but I really believe that this whole sordid episode was just another fake,” she huffed indignantly. “Trump has kidnapped a foreign leader, picked a fight he cannot possibly win with Iran, threatened to wreck the world economy, tried to scuttle our most secure and durable alliance in NATO, and now he has staged an attempt on his own life with one single purpose:  he wants to distract attention from how poorly he is handling his job.”

It's interesting to note that news coverage of this particular conspiracy theory always modifies it with words most often associated with claims advanced by the president himself.  This ‘fake’ assassination, the stories dutifully report, represents “a claim without factual basis.”

It’s highly unusual these days for such words to be associated with anti-Trump assertions, but the evolution of this particular event certainly demonstrates what an incoherent mess is American political life in these times.

Saturday’s attempted assassination also serves as a bookend for an event 15 years ago, when Trump was a celebrity guest at the Correspondents’ Dinner table sponsored by The Washington Post, long before the newspaper was purchased by Amazon founder and trillionaire Jeff Bezos.

In 2011, Trump was still hosting a wildly popular TV show called ‘The Apprentice,’ an American reality television series that judged the business skills of a group of contestants. It ran in various formats across 15 seasons on NBC from 2004 to 2017, and Trump served as host for almost all those years. He became famous for bellowing “you’re fired” at contestants whose business plans he and other panelists found insufficient to warrant investment.

Barack Obama was the American president in 2011. He had been the subject of repeated claims, “without factual basis,” that Obama had really been bor--not in Hawaii, as his authentic birth certificate stated--but rather in Kenya, the land of his father’s birth. Trump, offering an early demonstration of his uncanny ability to grasp and hold onto a wild, attention-grabbing moment, was perhaps the leading proponent of this conspiracy theory.

At the dinner 15 years ago, Trump was sitting with wife Melania when Obama offered some humorous remarks. Included was the following dig at Trump: “Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter – like, did we fake the moon landing?”

But the worst was to come. The dinner often features a monologue delivered by a popular comedian, featuring jokes designed to skewer politicians of both parties and some of their celebrity guests as well. Seth Myers did the honors inn 2011. Myers has hosted a late-night comedy show for the past dozen years, and worked at ‘Saturday Night Live.’  Here’s Myers’ most memorable line from that evening: “Donald Trump is saying he’s going to run for president as a Republican, which is surprising because I thought he was running as a prank.”

Nearly a decade later, Myers was unrepentant about his appearance that evening. “I don’t think that anything I did was out of line. Lest anyone forget, Trump wasn’t just an ordinary citizen who just happened to have a seat at that dinner. He was a birther, just basically banging the drum on the idea that the president wasn’t from this country, which is as racist today as it was then.”

Trump’s furious, red-faced reaction was recalled by someone sitting close to his table. “I could see Trump turn like a very intense shade of purple. I think the cliché is beet red, but actually, it was like I’d never seen a human turn that color. What I remember most clearly about that night was that it was the people laughing the loudest were not Democrats or journalists. It was the Republicans. Because they all felt like, hey, this guy is dragging down our party. He’s taking up all of our oxygen and he’s making us look stupid.”

Who knew what the future would hold?

According to many reports at the time, Trump didn’t remain to socialize after the speeches ended. “He basically — he exited immediately,” another guest sitting nearby later reported.  “He rose from the table, took Melania by the arm, and made a beeline for the exit. He didn’t say goodnight, he shot out of the room. It wasn’t just that Obama ripped him, Seth Meyers lacerated him, too. It was humiliating.”

On Tuesday, Trump certainly appeared serene as he hosted Britain’s King Charles III, a man whose royal status the president reportedly aspires to emulate. The king, whose health is frequently the subject of speculation now, struck a conciliatory note even as Trump continues to lambaste the UK prime minister for his lack of support for America’s war with Iran.

The king reminded us all that Britain and the US have supported each other in “two world wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan, and moments that have defined our shared security. These are strong foundations on which to continue to build.”