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President Donald Trump was on fine form last night
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Here's a little of what he told the correspondents. Mostly I've given up on you and the media so that now I just gave up on you and I'm number one on TikTok
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Did you see that I'm number one, Stephen? Is that true? I'm number one on TikTok
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So how could they be so bad? 525, think of this, 425 billion views
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Can you believe that, Peter? I mean, let's go, Peter. I gave up on you people
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I gave up on traditional press, and it obviously worked because we did win in a landline
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I mean, somebody's got to be saying something good about me. Dear Lord, dear Lord
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I did read in advance that it was described in advance as a unifying yet vicious speech to the journalist
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and also I did note Secret Service Director Sean Curran told reporters in the middle, I think it was on Wednesday last week
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that I think the quote was, we expect bad people to show up, and Donald Trump did indeed show up
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I'm joined by Charles Feldman, political yst and host of the SOS America podcast
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Always nice to see you, Charles. I mean, Trump was on... You never know what he's going to say
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but as far as his unpredictability goes, I think he was quite predictably on good form last night
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Unlike the last time, nobody was apparently aiming to shoot at him
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but he did certainly take shots at the press and at the news media
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And that was expected, and it was true to form for Donald Trump
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I'm sure he just could not resist it. But, you know, look, this is an event that a lot of journalists
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not the ones, of course, who went to the dinner, but the ones who didn't, and more journalists don't go than do go
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And many have objected for a long time to these dinners. They objected actually before Donald Trump was ever president
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because it's kind of an awkward situation, right, if you think about it
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I mean, these are people that are supposed to, on a daily basis, cover the U.S. government, cover the president of the United States
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And once a year, they get together and they cozy up and everybody gets dressed in black tie and evening gowns
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And they schmooze with whoever happens to be in the White House. In this case, of course, it's Donald Trump
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And it does present a rather awkward picture to the public. Now you add to that that Donald Trump is the president who is the most anti anti president in modern times
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He has sued the press. He has berated the press. He insults them
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He has sexist remarks, racist remarks, all aimed at various members of the print, radio, television media
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And to have them all come together and have dinner, many journalists are very upset by that
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And in fact, a whole bunch of them wrote a letter saying that if you guys who are attending are going to do it
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then at least make some speeches at the podium with Donald Trump right there and berate him for his lack of respect for the First Amendment and freedom of the press
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You have always been a deal guy. Well, that's the deal. And the First Amendment is a done deal
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With the war in Iran intensifying, the U.S. bombardments intensifying, I just wonder whether the American people find the White House correspondent
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Do they find it as entertaining as someone like me here in the U.K. might
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Probably not. Probably if you are, say, the parents of somebody who was killed, a U.S. service person, I think the number is now up to 18
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if you are the parents or the husband or wife of somebody who was killed because of this war
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I think you might find it somewhat objectionable that the people who are supposed to be reporting on what's going on
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are, you know, schmoozing it up with the president of the United States
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Now, in fairness, it wasn't a love fest earlier tonight, as you could tell from that soundbite or the soundbites that you played
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You know, Trump certainly didn't hide his antipathy to the press. He wasn't making his remarks in jest
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He wasn't making them because he has a warm, fuzzy feeling about the press
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He means what he says. He doesn't like them. He's never liked the press, except when they say nice things about him
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This is somewhat of a scoop. My intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States
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I will be doing that. I will be having an official. In fact, I think I have... Yeah
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I won three times. Now I going to do it again Thank you I going to do it Should be easy I getting very good at running for president No I won three times
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Did very well the second time, by the way. It's a rigged election, but we'll have to talk about it
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You know, it's interesting. When you come back and you do a good job like we did, you don't care about it so much
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but we do have to tighten up these elections because they really are in seriously bad shape
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Is he just joking or is he setting, Is he laying down a path
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Well, you know, that's a really good question. Of course, the U.S. Constitution says he can't run for president
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Again, only two terms. He has now served or will soon serve out his second term
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There's this sort of weird theory that some very far right wing conservatives have that they interpret the Constitution as, in effect, saying
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Well, it means that you can't serve more than two consecutive terms
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And since Joe Biden was president the last time, therefore Donald Trump has not served two consecutive terms
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So he could take another whack at it. I don't think the Supreme Court will go along with that, but who knows
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It was an extremely unfortunate evening for everybody involved. the president attempting to make jokes that fell absolutely flat members of the press on the
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receiving ends uh end of attacks by a man who only two weeks ago unleashed the department of justice
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on a group of reporters from the new york times uh issuing them with subpoenas because of their
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reporting about a lack of defensive capability on the new air force one that has been gifted to the
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president by the government of Qatar. Remember that he's continuing to sue our public broadcaster
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the BBC, for billions of dollars over that Panorama documentary, even though it's pretty
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clear that that lawsuit is now falling apart by the week. So I just think a deeply, deeply
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uncomfortable event. And of course, he sported a Trump 2028 piece of headgear last night. Again
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you know joking except he's never really joking about the possibility of seeking an unconstitutional
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third term in office i have to say i mean i've been to you know half a dozen of these dinners
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and you right they are you know it rubber chicken at a considerable cost with normally a very effective security line to get in um but what was so weird about last night is that yes the president on one hand tries to make light of things and yes he can be occasionally quite funny
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Sometimes we're laughing with him and not just at him. But he is suing these companies for billions of dollars
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including, as you mentioned, the BBC. I mean, that is a direct threat, you know, against the free press
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suing the Wall Street Journal. Absolutely. Which was mentioned last night, you know, by one of the, you know
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They got a prize for what they'd written about him and his letter to Jeffrey Epstein
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This year's award goes to the Wall Street Journal. I mean, if you're going after these companies for billions of dollars
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even if you lose the case, you are effectively undermining the freedom of the press
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You're intimidating or trying to intimidate, you know, the fourth estate in a way that is just completely unacceptable on totally bogus claims
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And of course, in many cases, CBS, for instance, ABC, to some extent, it has worked
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You know, they've given him the money. You know, they've made power. Absolutely. He's not trying to undermine. He has undermined freedom of the press
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He has led some news organizations to bend the knee before him
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The Washington Post, a shadow of its former self, now owned by Jeff Bezos
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who decided to change the entire editorial line of The Washington Post in favor of issues that Trump favors
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CBS News now taken over by supporters of Donald Trump the father and son Ellison team
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Barry Weiss running CBS News into the ground its ratings falling like a stone
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as the entire network genuflects before him and now of course he's got his eyes on CNN
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if that Paramount deal goes through and Paramount succeeds in buying Warner Brothers Discovery
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there's no question that CNN will also similarly be compromised because there'll be a new management foisted upon it that leads it to genuflect as well
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So the fourth estate, as we both knew it for so many decades
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essentially has largely collapsed as a result of President Donald Trump using his power and influence and his wealthy supporters
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to force media institutions to pledge fealty to him. I mean, the most uncomfortable moment of the night last night
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was when he is congratulating Wall Street Journal reporters for writing that article about Jeffrey Epstein
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for which he is suing the Wall Street Journal for billions of dollars
