We can only imagine.

The single most thin-skinned person on Earth, having to sit there and take it, as the president of the United States joked about you. And rightly so, you’d been wrong, spouting the birther shit for years, never proving it, until it was definitively disproven.

Obama had every right to joke with Trump that night. Chris Christie addressed the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner in which Obama roasted Trump.

There are some people that can be the butt of jokes and have it fall off them. Some, depending on the joke, can wear it with pride; “I thought it was hilarious…” Not Trump. He is not that type. He cannot take sitting in a room and having people laughing at jokes about him.

He has no sense of humor. Chris Christie recounts the 2011 scene in his new book about reviving the Republican party and talks about Trump’s fury:

At one point, Obama joked that since his long-form birth certificate had been released, Trump could move on to other outrageous conspiracy theories. Trump, then the host of NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice,” sat in the audience and glowered.

“It was fascinating and excruciating all at once,” Christie, who also attended the dinner, writes of watching Obama’s roast and Trump’s reaction in his book, “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.”

See, that’s the point. Trump believes it is HIS right to take you down by “tweet” (is there anything weaker?) but it is not “fair” and infuriating when the person attacked attacks back.

It infuriated Trump:

Christie said Trump was furious after the event. Some have speculated that the evening of public humiliation helped fuel Trump’s desire to run for president four years later. “I spoke to Donald after the dinner,” Christie said. “He was pissed off like I’d never seen him before. Just beside himself with fury.”

It might have helped fuel his motivation to run, but not against Obama. Trump knew. He would never beat Obama. This was 2011. If Trump wanted to take on Obama, he had his shot. No, Trump waiting for 2016 and a guaranteed run against Hillary, a person who was already divisive outside the Democratic party.

But it is not at all hard to imagine Trump’s anger, fury, rage, and indeed, it’s kind of nice to think about it. Ironically, there are thousands of people who attend the annual gala who would die to be the butt of a presidential joke. It would be the ultimate affirmation that one has made it to the top, you were worthy of mention.

Even more ironically, when Trump became president, it ended the tradition of having the president attended. They didn’t want him there and he didn’t want to go see them. Trump ended a lot of presidential traditions, some of which made Americans more than thankful.

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[email protected] and on Substack: Much Ado About Everything