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Inside the Waldorf Astoria on Friday evening, President Donald Trump took to the stage at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and tried out some Don Rickles-like shtick, interspersed it with some of his greatest rally hits and fixated on some of his obsessions, including his plans for a White House ballroom.

What stood out during his one-hour-and-two minute remarks, though, was the silence in the crowd: many jokes didn’t land, he meandered into asides and veered into insider-ish attacks that likely went well over the heads of the TV audience. Much of what he said wasn’t humor, in contrast to the tightly scripted routines of his predecessors, but akin to a fever dream from someone who has spent a bit too much time watching right-wing TV.

At about 45 minutes in, guests were looking at their phones and fidgeting in their seats. I looked around and locked eyes with a man who gave a brief yawn. It was Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.

The length of Trump’s remarks were a reminder of one of Johnny Carson’s quips from the Oscars decades ago: “Welcome to two hours of sparkling entertainment spread over a four-hour show.” It should be noted that Trump’s weaving from topic to topic included a riff on the Academy Awards and how they have gotten too anti-Trump, but even that didn’t get much of a response.

The president did deliver some funny lines, including quips about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire, very delicious beef tenderloin, very special beef. And I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy, who’s right here, personally ran over the cow in his car.”

Trump also revealed that he still counts how many front-page stories he gets in the New York Times, and gave some practical guidance for reporters who have his phone number and want to call him directly, and why he answers some of them. “I always find that when you don’t speak to the press, you always get a bad story. When you do speak to the press, you have a shot at a good story.”

Yet in a room full of journalists, Trump’s attacks on figures like CNN’s Kaitlan Collins were met with stone-faces from those who were well aware their reactions could be caught on C-SPAN cameras. His personal insults, ranging from Adam Schiff having a pencil neck to Chris Christie’s weight to Bruce Springsteen’s aged face, also were repeats of various Truth Social posts.

The event, in the Waldorf Astoria ballroom, was in a much smaller venue than the Washington Hilton, making it more intimate and putting many attendees face-to-face with Trump’s top advisers and members of his cabinet including Stephen Miller, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. With a much smaller crowd, and no pre-event receptions, the enhanced security generally moved briskly.

There were standout moments during other parts of the evening. This was the rescheduled dinner after April’s event was stopped by an apparent assassination attempt on the president, as a gunman breached security and the sounds of gunfire sent the thousands of attendees at the Washington Hilton to the floor. The WHCA paid tribute to the Secret Service officer, Victor Gonzales, who helped stop the gunman, as well as the Washington Hilton staff.

WHCA president Weijia Jiang, White House correspondent for CBS News, gave a very personal and heartfelt speech about her journey, having been born in China, raised in Appalachian coal country and, inspired by Connie Chung, landing in the “Oval Office to ask questions of the president of the United States.”

There was pressure on the WHCA to directly confront Trump for his attacks on the press. Jiang talked about the purpose of the First Amendment and the intent of the founders, while commenting more generally on the state of the situation rather than call out specific episodes. She said, “Criticism of the media can be unfair. It can also be legitimate. We get a lot right, but sometimes we get things wrong. We mistake proximity to power for understanding it, and at times we get trapped in our own bubbles. There is a difference, though, an existential difference, between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it.”

When it came to the defense of the press at a difficult moment, the approach of the WHCA appeared to be that of what is taught in J-school: Show, don’t tell. A video segment featured an AI-generated James Madison explaining the importance of the First Amendment, with clips of Trump’s predecessors, including Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, acknowledging the essential role of the press corps. Comments from Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson reinforced how the adversarial nature of the relationship is nothing new.

The most direct face-to-face with Trump’s press attacks came when Wolf Blitzer presented an award to Wall Street Journal for its reporting on an alleged bawdy letter that Trump wrote to Jeffrey Epstein. As Blitzer noted that Trump sued the Journal for $20 billion, the president gave a smirk, to some laughter, then he shook hands with the reporters who received the prize. After it was over, he threw his hands up in the air, as if to say, whatever.

Toward the end of his winding remarks, Trump did say that he respected those in the room, but also that he planned to be back at the event next year.

What seemed to really wow the room came at the end, when mentalist Oz Pearlman performed a series of feats, made all the more notable when they involved UN Ambassador Mike Waltz and Blanche. The latter figure, awaiting Senate confirmation to take the DOJ post permanently, gamely played along as Pearlman asked him to lie about how much money he had in his wallet. Blanche said $130; Pearlman wrote down the correct figure, $85.

Later, Pearlman had Blanche sign one of his $20 bills.

“Hold it up and let everyone see the federal offense you have just committed,” Pearlman quipped. “He just clearly lost the Senate confirmation hearings on camera.” The interplay made sense a little later when Pearlman performed another feat, writing a figure on a whiteboard that matched the serial number to Blanche’s bill.

The moment was a bit incongruous to what is going on in D.C. and with Blanche himself, what with the DOJ recently issuing subpoenas to reporters from The New York Times, and then withdrawing them in the face of a judge’s criticisms. But for the WHCA dinner, a tradition that has traditionally mixed the serious with showbiz, Pearlman’s routine at least proved to be a bit of sparkling entertainment.