Trump blames speechwriter for his comedic failure at charity event in New York
Former president Donald Trump blamed his speechwriters for the unfunny and mean-spirited jokes he made at a charity event on Thursday, calling them “idiots” and then told Fox News that he “didn’t like” some of the jokes drafted for him.
“It’s a nasty thing,” Trump said Thursday night when joking about Doug Emhoffvice president Kamala Harrisher husband, causing the audience to groan. “I told the idiots who gave me this, it’s too difficult.”
Trump’s joke—and his rejection of it—both took place at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York on Thursday night, a long-running Catholic charity event. Traditionally, presidential candidates speak at dinners during election years, making humorous (or possibly humorous) remarks to a crowd of wealthy guests.
During Trump’s 30-minute episodewhich he personally delivered, he took aim at the president Joseph BidenGovernor of Minnesota Tim Walz and New York mayor Eric Adamsamong other Democratic Party figures. Meanwhile, Harris did not attend in person but sent a pre-recorded sketch with the actress Molly Shannonto Trump’s apparent consternation.
Although no candidate is always funny—they are To be after all, politicians—especially Trump’s performance—sometimes seem less humorous than cynical. The former president opened with a scathing diatribe in which he repeatedly criticized Harris for skipping dinner, complained about the lack of a teleprompter and called his audience “liberals in Manhattan.” Trump admitted for the first time that the attendees were not his “normal crowd” to thunderous laughter. “Many of you are Manhattan liberals from the media and the Democratic Party,” he then added in almost complete silence.
Meanwhile, Trump’s political jokes are often vulgar and personal. He quipped that Harris and Biden both possessed the “mental abilities” of children and made an anti-trans joke about Walz having her period. He completely abandoned his joking demeanor to attack the former New York City mayor Bill de BlasioWho is the audience?
“He’s a terrible mayor—I don’t care if this is a comedy or not. He is a terrible man,” Mr. Trump said.
Even Trump seemed skeptical about the success of his comedy at some points. Seemingly wanting to change the script, he complained that he didn’t want to make any jokes at all – and he didn’t know if the jokes he made were funny or not. ABOVE Fox & Friends The next morning the homeowner Steve Doocy praised Trump and asked where he got the documents, then Trump himself criticized.
“I had a lot of people help me, a lot of people,” Trump said. “Some people from Fox—actually, I shouldn’t say that, but they wrote some jokes. For the most part, I don’t like any of it.” (Fox News later declared that “no employees or freelancers write jokes.”)
Notably, this is not Trump’s first failure at the Al Smith dinner. By his own admission, he also went “overzealous” in 2016 when criticizing the Democratic presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton. “I know I’m in trouble in the middle, because … even my own side is angry with me,” Trump said Thursday. “They said ‘that’s too much’ but I still did it.”
