The annual Gridiron club dinner in Washington on Saturday was jokes about President Trump, the disintegration of the global order, Russia, the uncertain future of the Democrats and of course Elon Musk.
One of the headliners was Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, a star in the democratic side. He acknowledged that his spokesman Slot was a sign of his own political ambitions, while being produced on existing White House passengers.
“If I wanted to be president, I wouldn’t do any of it,” he said. “Instead, I would come directly to people who are in charge of our democracy.” Kremlin. ”
Even after all these years, jokes about Mr. Trump and Russia still play with the official crowd of Washington. Those in the basement of Hyatt, which was filled with reporters, editors, television anchors and ambassadors, laughed.
But Mr. Trump wasn’t there to hear none of it.
He and the best members of his administration skipped dinner, which is one of those old -fashioned Washington rituals. Presidents who date back to William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt were attended by the Gridiron Club event, an association of the best journalists founded in 1885. Historically, it was a chance for President Schmoze with people who cover it.
Mr. Trump jumped dinner in 2017, the first year he was president, but participated in 2018. That year he made several self -centered jokes about his administration. (“I like the chaos. It’s really good. Who will leave another? Steve Miller or Melania?”) That was the first and last time he attended.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. He went last year and burst jokes about the upcoming presidential campaign that was not quite good. (“One candidate is too old and mentally inappropriate to be president,” he said that year. “The other guy is me.”)
This year, without the presence of the President, smaller political and media players remained left to fill the void. The jokes they said were offered a picture of this moment in the capital.
The Republican headliner was a representative of Lisa McClain of Michigan. “I was also told that Robert Kennedy would be here tonight, but unfortunately he couldn’t,” she said, “she has measles.”
Judy Woodruff’s journalist Judy Woodruff opened a room with jokes that Mr Musk had paired so many children and Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth. She also torn the democrats: “At a joint meeting they were lost and disorganized than Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl,” she said, referring to Quarterback Kansas City.
There were also parodies.
One number of songs and dances included a man dressed like Mr. Musk in his T -shirt with technical support that waved the chain saw around and sang about his line to the extreme right: “I transform GOP into AfD,” he sang.
One of the less successful acts focused on two men pretending to be the leader of the minority of Hake Jeffries and the leader of the minority of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, covered with leaves. “Lost in the Forest” was a choir. (“No one cares about your pronouns when you are lost in the forest.”)
Another issue was portrayed by Mr. Biden dressed as an employee of Amtrak. He seemed to have a better reception that he with leaves.
Another was the depiction of two other high-ranking democrats, with representative Alexandria tail-Cortez from New York fighting with Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. She accused him of being disguised by Maga, and he accused her of being a communist. Another act had a fake USha Vance singing that he was a false populist.
There were jokes that few people outside this reversible room could understand, for example, when Terry McAuliffe, a former Governor of Virginia, referred to the Woodrow Wilson international center for scientists, a non -Startisan Think tank. (It focuses on Trump’s administration.)
Margaret Brennan of CBS shouted members of the diplomatic corps from Britain, France, Australia and the European Union. “You know,” she said, “all America’s enemies.”
Then she introduced the Ukrainian ambassador – no joke was told – and many journalists in the room built clapping.
