President Donald Trump recently addressed “this theory” that then-President Barack Obama’s barrage of jokes during the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was reportedly what drove him to run for office in 2016 and stop hosting “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Trump on Thursday phoned into Fox News to sugarcoat his polling numbers and tout the supposed successes of his ongoing war on Iran, when “The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld noted that the MAGA leader will be attending the annual dinner “for the first time” since 2011.
“You know, I haven’t done it because right from the beginning I was treated rather rudely and crudely,” said Trump. “You know, I won the election in 2016. It was one of the greatest elections ever. And you were all witness to it, and I had great — but they were so nasty.”
He continued, “The press was so nasty, I just — so I didn’t do it. And you know, there is this theory that I was there while Barack Hussein Obama was speaking, and he was hitting me a little bit. Actually, it was very nice, and I was actually, I loved it. I really loved it.”
Obama landed some uproarious jokes about Trump during the coveted gala, mocking the real estate tycoon for his obsession with the conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and roasting Trump for being busied by trivial reality television escapades.
After stating Trump is happy “to put this birth certificate matter to rest,” Obama joked, “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like: Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened at Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
He then sarcastically acknowledged Trump’s “credentials and breadth of experience” by citing a then-recent “Apprentice” episode, praising Trump for savvily recognizing “a lack of leadership” among the show’s contestants and firing actor Gary Busey to resolve this.
“And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night,” Obama jokingly added.
Trump claimed ahead of the 2016 election that he had “a great time” and was “honored” that Obama cracked jokes about him and “delivered them well,” but some key Trump allies and commentators have suggested that evening seemingly sparked motivation for Trump’s presidential run. Trump, however, told “The Five” that in a conversation with his wife, Melania Trump, he shared his thoughts at the time about Obama’s comments at the dinner.
“I was saying to her, ‘You know, I love this, I’m having a good time,’ because every joke was about me, and I sort of liked it. I can handle that stuff,” said Trump. “And they said, ‘I was so upset with that evening that I decided that evening to run for president.’ Whatever, it wasn’t.”
He added, “Had nothing to do with my running for president.”
Trump has since tried roasting Obama back, though not to his face (and to rather awkward results). He’s also shared an artificial intelligence-generated video of Obama getting jailed, blamed the Iran war on him, and shared a racist video depicting Obama as an ape.
