Mr. Trump Goes to the Correspondents' Dinner

Donald Trump made good on his promise to reschedule his speech at the Correspondents’ Dinner. It was either hilariously funny or extremely offensive, depending on your tribal affiliation.

I already knew how the press would cover it. They would only go for the low-hanging fruit. What else is new? Trump seemed to want to give them the Trump they expected, but at times I thought he showed genuine humility and treated them with more kindness than they deserved.

He played some of his greatest hits, going at Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, who is now a Palestinian, AOC plus three, and said Rep. Ilhan Omar should “get the hell of our country,” while encouraging Kaitlan Collins to smile more. It was your typical resistance lib’s worst nightmare. I laughed out loud a few times and found it to be not as bad as it could have been, though I cringed a few times. Even Trump seemed to cringe at some of the jokes that had been written for him, he said.

The cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome was always just to watch Trump’s speeches — which spiral around and go all over the place. He calls it “the weave.” But once you see his speeches and listen to what he actually says, you realize that he’s not the same guy they’ve lied about for ten long years.

The legacy media is to blame for the madness of the Left now, how they’ve gone so insane they are fantasizing about Trump’s death and plan to celebrate. They cherry-picked the worst things Trump said and tossed them into the social media churn, and look at what it’s done to millions of people.

Nothing Trump could say, even the worst insults, is as bad as driving half of the country to the brink of madness. I was a victim of it because I trusted them. I also didn’t question how I was getting my news. It was a feedback loop that fed nonstop “Two Minutes of Hate,” per Orwell.

In 2020, the isolation from lockdowns, my daughter leaving the nest, and one of my cats dying meant I was not able to tolerate the firehose of hate coming from my own side, all aimed at one man and his supporters. Ugly hate. Dehumanizing hate. It was too much for me.

I had to find out for myself who Trump really was. Was he all of the things they said? Was he really an existential threat on par with Hitler? No, as it turns out. He was the same guy whose entire reputation was made on saying controversial things. That’s it.

Trump didn’t change. He is still the guy on Celebrity Apprentice, the guy who shocked Oprah’s audience, or spoke plain truths on Phil Donahue, or told Larry King his breath was too bad to sit near.

It was the country that changed, becoming so politically correct, so afraid to offend anyone, that our speech had been carefully curated over time to the point where it was almost a different language.

So yes, anyone who spoke that language would have been sent into mass hysteria fits every time Trump said something you’re not supposed to say. And yet, that is likely how he beat every GOP contender in 2016 and probably how he beat Hillary Clinton. So many people in this country just wanted to hear someone tell it like it is.

I know so many on the Left, in the legacy media and in the establishment want Trump gone so the country can “go back to normal.” But I look around, and I see overly fragile generations who are in real trouble if they can’t handle words. Maybe Trump is exactly what the country needed, if for no other reason than to grow a thicker skin.

Those of us who have been chewed up and spit out by the Left, or treated like human garbage by them, or been shunned from the culture they’ve stolen for themselves will always be grateful for Trump, who always gives the middle finger even while dressed in a tux.

He saved the best for last, trolling them with his Trump 2028 hat.

Even if they don’t realize it now, everyone in that room tonight will spend the rest of their lives telling stories about how they were in the same room with Trump, both when they all almost got shot and later, when it was rescheduled.

It will be the most exciting thing that ever happened to many of them. They will all write books about this time in their lives and at some point, they’ll all realize what extraordinary events they’ve just lived through.

And maybe, just maybe, they’ll look back not in anger but with a bemused smile. Sticks and stones, dear media. Sticks and stones.