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How Uncool And Humorless Donald Trump Killed The Funny

Authoritarians aren't known for their senses of humor. But the terminally unfunny and uncool Donald Trump has taken it to a new low. Out of fear of Trump’s thin-skinned resentment and bottomless appetite for reprisal, the White House Correspondents Association has canceled the comedy performance at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 26.

The association caved following criticism of scheduled comedian Amber Ruffin by the White House for her critical jokes about the administration, with an added Trumpian slight that she was a "second-rate comedian.” Said the head of the WHCA in response, “At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work.” Translation: We are completely cowed by the prospect of offending the maximum leader, who, already departing from traditional practice, again won't even be attending the dinner.

While this may be absurd, and even pitiful, it is not funny.

First, I've been to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and as anyone who has been there will tell you, the comedic performance is the highlight—if not the only bright spot—in a pretty dreary evening of people in formal wear looking over each other's shoulders to see who is coming into the room.

The whole evening really is forgettable—except for the comedy high points as by Stephen Colbert in 2006, Keegan-Michael Key playing Obama’s anger translator in 2015, and the all-time classic: Obama’s send up of Trump himself in 2011, which some see as the genesis of the whole Trump plague to get back at political leaders, the media, and elites everywhere for his humiliation.

Second, and more importantly, the White House correspondents’ obvious flinch once again illustrates Trump's improbable and pernicious influence on broad sectors of civil society—here the media.

And while the immediate loss may be just a few jokes, the broader principle is horrendous. The ability to criticize our leaders is not merely protected by the First Amendment, it is at its very heart. As Justice Frankfurter wrote 80 years ago, "[o]ne of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures."

And it's not simply a matter of freedom in the abstract. It's critical to the whole American experiment that Trump is in the process of putting through the meat grinder. Chief Justice Rehnquist, who was hardly known as a civil libertarian, spelled out the fundamental principle in an opinion upholding the right to lampoon the proud and famous, "[t]he freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty—and thus a good unto itself—but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole."

Conversely, societies whose citizens and media fear criticizing their leaders are not true democracies. Most typically, they are repressive autocracies governed by fear. We wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Russian citizens feel nervous—or worse—when criticizing Putin, but we would see it as the soul of tyranny. It's time to hold the mirror up to our own quickly eroding democracy.

Trump is not only humorless; he's a killer of humor. He belongs in the same category as grim, ruthless, and fundamentally boring figures like Putin and Orbán. They are about as funny as a gray November afternoon in East Germany, circa 1980.

In fact, Trump is our most humorless president since Nixon. Both of them call to mind Paduk in Vladimir Nabokov’s Bend Sinister, a man bullied and ostracized and whose totalitarian rule is in some pathetic way an attempt at revenge for those grade-school slights.

So, no highlights this year of a comedian skewering the president. To make up for it, I am attaching a few classic clips from White House Correspondents’ Dinners in fully functioning democracies of years past, ending with Obama’s hilarious and standard-setting mockery of The Donald, which remains a riot to listen to, even if we may in some way still be paying the price for the skewering of this petty and puerile man by a President who was light-years more composed, wise, clever, and self-assured.

Talk to you later.

Last Week’s Talking Five Winner!

Another week, another batch of razor-sharp entries in our Caption This contest—proof that no matter how bleak the political landscape gets, at least we still have gallows humor.

Last week’s prompt: After Paul Weiss caved, the administration tacked on a few extra terms to their agreement. What’s the next minor-yet-entirely-autocratic requirement they’ll impose?

And wow, you all delivered. From Putin-Trump bro-mance jabs to nods at Melania’s modeling days to multiple demands for Brad Karp’s first-born grandchild, the competition was fierce.

In the end, we looked for something singularly absurd yet perfectly in character for this cartoonishly corrupt era. Rick Dortch took the crown with:

“Paul/Weiss Accepts Trump Crypto Only”

Wouldn’t even be the most dystopian thing they’ve pulled.

Congrats, Rick! A member of our team will reach out soon to get you your Talking Feds mug.

Reprinted with permission from Talking Feds Substack.

No Problem! Fox Hosts Unfazed By False Arrests And Torture Of Innocents

Fox News propagandists are employing a variety of defenses in response to revelations that the Trump administration has sent people in error to a notorious foreign prison, from alleging that migrants don’t deserve due process to attacking other news outlets for reporting on the “one-offs” to arguing that such mistakes are acceptable because “a lot of people in this country” are “arrested for things that they didn’t do."

The Trump administration last month sent more than 260 largely Venezuelan immigrants whom it alleges are members of Tren de Aragua and other gangs for imprisonment in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center. The administration is acting in part through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows wartime deportation without a hearing, after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring Tren de Aragua an invading force.

There would be any number of moral and legal problems with transferring individuals from U.S. custody to a foreign prison notorious for abuse, in potential violation of a judge’s order, and under the questionable justification of a rarely used 200-plus-year-old statute that has previously been invoked only during a war declared by Congress — even if those individuals had all been convicted of serious crimes in U.S. courts.

But adding to the dystopian nature of the Trump administration’s policy is that family members and lawyers for several of the people deported to the foreign hell-prison without due process say they have no criminal history or links to any gang — and the administration’s lawyers have claimed in court that they are unable to recover an immigrant who was in the U.S. legally and was, by their own admission, sent to the prison due to “administrative error."

If the Trump administration can do this to a legal resident, it can, through malice or incompetence, do it to anyone.

But to watch Fox in the Trump era is not to wonder whether its personalities will defend the latest atrocities from the administration — it's merely an exercise in finding out how they will do it.

Fox excuse 1: Critics sympathise with “illegal alien gangbangers”

After lone Democratic co-host Jessica Tarlov highlighted the “numerous cases confirmed of people in that mega prison who should not be” on Friday’s edition of The Five, her co-panelists attacked her for sympathizing with criminals.

“Jessica, you're showing more sympathy to these illegal alien gangbangers than you showed to American citizens when you mistakenly let 10 million people in,” Jesse Watters replied.

“Maybe you should have the pictures of the victims of these people,” said Jeanine Pirro. “And it's real deterrence, so the American people and you can see it."

“There are people who will always argue on behalf of the criminal element, but they will be the first to cross the street if they see them come their way,” Greg Gutfeld added. “If one of these liberals were ever to run into these thugs, they would have a literal bleeding heart."

Fox excuse 2: These reports are “false sob stories” impugning “great law enforcement”

Fox anchor Harris Faulker asked Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to respond to “critics [who] are saying that innocent people are being swept up in the illegal gang member deportation operations,” during a Monday interview.

McLaughlin responded that the administration has “very intense scrutiny and intelligence assessments for these members of Tren de Aragua that we send to El Salvador and to other prisons,” and complained that “the mainstream media is absolutely doing the bidding of these vicious gang members that they are sharing false sob stories."

“Of course you will be careful who you scoop up and who you don't scoop up right away,” Faulkner agreed. “It is old-fashioned great law enforcement that’s being carried out."

“You mentioned false sob stories and other actions by some in the liberal media — and I guess by ‘some,’ I would need for somebody to show me an example of them not doing it at this point,” she added. “Is that kind of a distraction?"

Fox excuse 3: “It’s just a gay barber,” it is normal for people to be unjustly imprisoned

On Monday’s edition of The Five, Tarlov described the plight of one of the deportees who, while being beaten by guards during his entry to the prison, reportedly sobbed, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” The individual may be Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old asylum-seeker with no removal order or criminal history who had been held in an immigration jail due to government concerns about his wrist tattoos of “a crown, with the words ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ inked next to them in English."

Tarlov’s co-hosts were not interested.

“You've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks,” Watters replied. “It's just a gay barber."

“Yeah, come on,” Gutfeld interjected. “He’s not into you."

Watters continued, “He's an innocent guy who got swept up in deportation and hopefully we get it figured out and straightened out, but a lot of people in this country, Jessica, get arrested for things that they didn't do, get falsely accused, falsely convicted. That doesn’t mean you just stop arresting people."

“I have nothing against the gay barber — gay barbers usually give the best haircuts,’ he added. “We should bring him back just for that."

Fox excuse 4: “Other networks” are “only focused on the one-offs”

Some on Fox are suggesting that the media is deliberately covering people erroneously sent to the Salvadoran prison to hurt Trump.

“I do find the coverage interesting, if you turn to the other networks, they are only focused on the one-offs, they’re not focused on the criminals, and they’re not focused on the victims of illegal immigration, the people that have been assaulted,” Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones said on Tuesday’s show.

“And you know why that is — that’s because border and immigration is Donald Trump's No. 1 issue and they don't want to talk about that,” replied co-host Steve Doocy.

Fox excuse 5: Due process takes too long

Another argument on Tuesday’s Fox & Friends claimed that deporting people to El Salvador without due process is necessary because the U.S. court system takes too long to work.

Comparing “using the Alien and Enemies Act” to seeking a court deportation order, Jones complained that “it is a long process before you get a final deportation order."

Jones continued, “This is why the administration is saying, ‘Do we wait until we are out of office where we have no control — you want us to wait four years before we start getting the gang members and criminals out?’"

“I mean, it just doesn't make any sense,” he added.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Wisconsin Voters Deliver Powerful Rebuke To Musk And Trump In Judicial Race

Winning by ten points in Wisconsin’s special Supreme Court election, Judge Susan Crawford delivered a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump and his centibillionaire sidekick Elon Musk, both of whom endorsed and supported her right-wing opponent Brad Schimel.

The decisive Wisconsin defeat was taken as a stark warning for next year’s Congressional midterm elections, with Musk himself bemoaning the prospect of a Democratic Congress. "Losing this judge race has good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House. If they lose control of the House, there will be non-stop impeachment hearings, there will be non-stop hearings and subpoenas, they're going to do everything to stop the [Trump] agenda,” he told Fox News before the results came in.

Crawford exulted in her victory speech that she had beaten “the world’s richest man,” plutocratic mastermind of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its chaotic, deeply unpopular crusade to wreck federal agencies. Athough he spent an estimated $25 million against her, turning the Wisconsin race into the most expensive judicial election in American history, she defeated him and Schimel by 55-45 percent.

The Tesla boss’s humiliation was underscored by a campaign trip to the Badger State two days before the election, when he handed out million-dollar checks and donned a “cheesehead” hat. Just hours before voters went to the polls, his auto company’s board asked him to step down as its chief executive.

While Republicans attributed the Wisconsin outcome to Democratic intensity and lower propensity to vote among the Trump base, the results also pointed to potential disenchantment among voters who went Republican last fall. High turnout in Democratic strongholds like Dane County and Milwaukee drove the liberal surge – but Crawford also appears to have flipped a few major counties that backed Trump in 2024

With over 95 percent of the vote counted, the Democratic-backed judge won Kenosha, Racine, Outagamie and Sauk counties, all of which went Republican last year. Her margin in Kenosha County, one of the state’s largest, was roughly five percent.

Trump himself tried to brush off Schimel’s defeat. On Truth Social he emphasized instead that Wisconsin voters approved an amendment to the Wisconsin state constitution requiring voters to display photo identification before casting a ballot. The state already requires voter ID by law, but the constitutional change will protect the law from being changed.

Historian: Trump's Third Term Yearning May Provoke 'January 6 Scenario'

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump once again flirted with the idea of running for a third term, not ruling it out entirely in an NBC News interview.

But on Monday, presidential historian Tim Naftali told CNN that after the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, term-limited presidents have no legal way to stay in power. He pointed out that short of the arduous process of amending the Constitution (which involves getting two-thirds support among state legislatures and two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress), Trump will have no choice but to leave the White House in January of 2029.

"President Trump does not have the Constitutional cards in this case," Naftali said. "There are only two scenarios by which you could constitutionally alter the the Constitution and allow him to run for a third term, and they both involve finding 38 states. Donald Trump knows that there aren't 38 red states."

CNN host Brianna Keilar then asked Naftali about the scenario in which Trump could mimic Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev and ran the government behind the scenes before once again ascending to the presidency for yet another term. Keilar posited that Trump could run as Vice President JD Vance's running mate in 2028, only for Vance to then resign if elected and allow Trump to once again occupy the White House for four more years. However, Naftali threw cold water on that idea.

"The 12th amendment of our Constitution stipulates that no one can be a vice presidential candidate if they're not Constitutionally eligible to be president," he said. "That kind of Putin-Medvedev scenario is not possible in our country."

But the historian and New York University associate professor then pivoted to what he viewed as the most pressing question, which is: "Why is he talking this way?" Naftali explained that Trump "knows he doesn't have 38 states" and said that his talk of a third term has just three possible explanations. He added that the third option had particularly dark implications.

"One: Political theater. Donald Trump likes attention. He likes the fact we're talking about him right now. Maybe he's also hoping some people are going to say some things that are a little bit outrageous, which he can use to fundraise," he explained. "Number two, we're living in a in an increasingly evident culture of impunity. The president is using fear to get his way with universities, to get his way with law firms, to get his way with Congress, to get his way with Canada and Greenland and Panama and Ukraine. He's on a roll. And so why not talk about what he really wants, which is to stay in office as long as he can? The third is the January 6th scenario that the president, when he was in his first term, was capable of pushing for an unconstitutional and/or illegal way of staying in office. And maybe he is signaling to his supporters: 'Start thinking about ways we can stay through 2028 and 2029.'"

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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