Trump Faces Sharp Backlash After White House Dinner Speech

0:00Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Comfort Inn, it's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Book direct at choicehotels.com. Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on SpinQuest. And there's never been a better time to sign up than right now. New users get$30 coin packs for just$10. All the table games you love, with hundreds of slot games and real cash prizes. That's at SpinQuest.com. S-P-I-N-Q-U-E-S-T dot com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit SpinQuest.com for more details.

0:45Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is facing a brutal response after giving the worst speech of his life. The White House correspondent speech that he gave last night was truly the worst speech he ever gave. And that's saying something. Frankly, I think it was the worst speech that anybody has ever given in the history of humankind. And so when the speech ended, you had the C-SPAN host say, wow, so Donald Trump there said that his own speech was a stupid freaking speech. That's how he referred to it as. Let me show you what the C-SPAN host said. Here, play this clip. President Trump from earlier this evening delivering his remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, he referred to his own speech as this whole freaking stupid speech.

1:35We want to get your reaction to what you heard from the...

1:39Ben Meiselas:Then C-SPAN took phone calls and they asked their caller, so what'd you think about that speech? And one of the callers or the first caller said, well, he's a total chode. He was deranged and psychotic. He didn't fall asleep while he was actually giving the speech. So there was at least that. But this was one of the most awful things ever. I just want you to listen to the C-SPAN caller. But Donald Trump actually did fall asleep after the speech and he fell asleep before the speech. But listen to what the C-SPAN caller said. Here, play this clip. Absolutely. So what did you hear tonight? what was your reaction I thought he was usual he was a bore he was a chode and long-winded use and he didn't fall asleep tonight that's a good thing he rambled on a name about a name things and cares about chandeliers he renamed wants to rename everything in his name and the ballroom and he talked about those who criticize him it wasn't worth watching him and it wasn't worth it just like it wasn't worth watching him on the um on wednesday regarding the election security also i was very disgusted and appalled at the hat that he pulled out at the last minute um all he does is run for president and rallies and talks rally speeches paulie you didn't you didn't take that as a joke him donning a 2028 hat oh no no not at all he truly means that he does and the 22nd amendment doesn't allow him to do that he has to it has to be changed and ratified by two-thirds of the congress and both in both houses and 38 out of 50 states have to ratify that so i don't see it happening but he does not pay attention to our laws he's running through our Constitution.

3:39He doesn't care about our laws nor our Constitution, and he has sycophants following him and doing his bidding. All right. Paula, I'm going to move on to Jonathan.

3:50Ben Meiselas:Let me show you some of the other reactions right here. You had Brian Stelter on CNN, and he said, you know, I once bombed giving a speech in high school, and I still feel humiliated for that speech. Watching Donald Trump give this speech gave me flashbacks to when I bombed my high school speech. Here play this clip. John, Laura, I once had to give a comedic speech in high school and I totally bombed and it was humiliating and I kind of feel like that's what I watched. I was giving me flashbacks to 11th grade in high school tonight. I'm sorry that you had that. Do you want to talk about it more, Brian?

4:26I honestly haven't gotten over it yet. I think Trump will be more resilient in that particular point in time. But, you know, it's important to note, I mean, the idea of we do have the expectations.

4:37Ben Meiselas:Then you had Van Jones saying nothing that Donald Trump was saying was funny. It was bomb after bomb after bomb. Let's play this clip. This was a moment, a couple of months from before the midterm elections, that I wonder why he chose this route as opposed to one that would have been advantageous or dignified. Well, every one of those names are legitimate targets for a funny joke. Right. I mean, like those are all newsmakers. I could say, but none of them were funny. They were all just like literal bombs. Like it was just bomb after bomb after bomb. It's like we're not Iran. We're the American people.

5:15Quit bombing. Let's let's let's go to Brian Stelter.

5:19Ben Meiselas:You then had Harry Enten, you know, the pollster on CNN. He's like, it's one thing to be unfunny for 30 minutes. but being unfunny for an entire hour and making us all suffer through that? Here play this clip. Speech wasn't just that it was unfunny, but, you know, there was that time in which he kept trying to explain the joke over and over and over again. Like, we get it. You can't go up the stairs and make love. We get it. We get it. We get it, bro. We get it, Mr. President. And if he truly understood what was going on, he would have gotten off the stage. It's one thing to be unfunny for 30 minutes.

5:51It's another thing to be unfunny for over an hour and make the rest of us suffer. I mean, what did the American audience do to deserve an hour and four minutes of that? It wasn't that bad. Relax. Relax. It was pretty bad, man. It was okay. Let me just tell you. I'm about to tell on you, Arthur. I thought I was scrolling. You weren't even paying attention. You weren't even TikTok that whole... I watched you. I was trying to... Or whatever. The reels. You were not paying attention. Twice you gave me up tonight. The jokes at the table. The scrolling on the phone.

6:22Ben Meiselas:Even the right-wing panelist that was on the CNN fight show, as I like to call it, was like, yeah, you know, one of my buddies from Hollywood said that no one wants to write speeches for Donald Trump. None of the funny comic writers wants to write speeches. So that's why it was so bad, because no comedians want to actually even write speeches for Donald Trump. Okay, here, play this clip. I have to be very careful, but yeah, it's, you have a much better shot when you cooperate and try to at least move the boundaries a little bit. But, I mean, we all said something tonight about Trump not being as funny as he could be.

6:57But one of my buddies from Hollywood who's watching, he's been there six decades in Hollywood, he said all of the best comedy writers who write these speeches for every presence, they refuse to work for Trump. He said, they're all Democrats. They're all Democrats. Okay, maybe, well, there was somebody. They didn't do a really great job. Whoever did it didn't get a really great job. Yeah, yeah. But I'm - Puerto Rico guy. Look, those were not Donald - Even Donald Trump said, who wrote these things? Like, he was bumming out about the quality of the jokes. I mean, they - I think Trump, if he just tried to be himself a little bit more, may have been funnier than trying to follow a scrimp.

7:32You know, I - Look, I-I-I agree with you, because it's obvious that, you know, the SNL writers are not clamoring to work with Donald Trump, right? Thank you. But you got - I mean, you got - There's gotta be somebody who would write a speech for him. I don't know.

7:45Ben Meiselas:Then Harry Enten said, you know, he must have just been so angry because he has the worst polls in modern history. I mean, Trump's polling worse than Nixon at the time that Nixon resigned. Trump's worse than Nixon at that time. Here, listen to what Harry Enten said. Let's play this clip. Thank you for having me. Demand more. You deserve better. Trust me. He's mad because his approval rating is lower than the percentage of that speech in which I was yawning. This is why he is so angry he is so angry because he is an unpopular president the least popular president at this point in their second term of any president this century and so he is lashing out because he knows that in a few months his party is going to face the voters and more likely than not at least part of that party at least at least in the house of representative is going to get turned out of power and that is because donald john trump simply put is significantly less popular than he was a year and a half ago.

8:40That's the most important thing.

8:41Ben Meiselas:I did a whole recap of the speech, so I'm not going to do a whole thing here, but I just want to just show you just to get a taste of it. Go back to the YouTube feed. You'll see that I did a whole recap of the speech if you want to watch it, but oof, not great. Here, play this clip. Because I see what's happening. I see what's happening. The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy from his wife, and she said, when you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me. And he said, I can't do both. You know what? In other words, you can't go up the stairs and make love.

9:25Does anybody get that? Well, I thought that was actually pretty good.

9:28Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump was like, I won't call you lying Ted because that's my past conquests. Those are my past conquests. Dude, what are you talking about? Here, play this clip. We got much credit for that. Fake News, good. Pocahontas, good. I won't say Lion Ted because he's on my side. I don't talk about past conquests, but we have a lot of them. I won't talk about, I got a whole table full of Republicans there. They're saying, no, don't mention my freaking name, will you please? But we've had a lot of good names. Then you had Abby Phillip and she was like, Like, it must just be his age. I mean, the guy's adult, you know, I think that there's a lot of Americans who just realize that Donald Trump just cognitively can't give speeches anymore.

10:15Ben Meiselas:Just think about, how long have we been saying this on Midas Touch? And everybody was like, oh, you're being hyperbolic by saying his health is crashing and his health is collapsing. And you're not, why are you being hyperbolic? It's not happening. It is happening, okay? hey, it's been happening. And I've been chronicling it every damn day, right? I mean, it's happening, you know, and now everybody's reporting on it, finally. But we talk about the same way we've been talking about the Epstein files five years ago. Here, play this clip. I mean, obviously the presidency ages everyone who is in it, but man, he really seemed like a shadow of his former self.

10:56It's been a decade. And, you know, the American people for the first time, you know, have said essentially that Trump doesn't necessarily have the physical health in order to carry on and be president of the United States or be an effective president, which is very different from what we have generally seen.

11:11Ben Meiselas:And more from Harry Enten, low energy, a total bore. It was terrible. Let's play this clip. Low energy, Donald. I mean, in my in a word, I would just call it it was a bore. It was a bore for a man that I think can crack a lot of jokes. And the bottom line is this. You know, I have a lot of trouble sleeping at night. I often have to take Benadryl, but I'm not going to have to take any Benadryl at night because I could just replay that speech and I'll fall asleep like that. I agree. Honestly, though, it was. Even Scott Jennings, right? Even the ultra MAGA Scott Jennings is saying, all right, I think the problem with Donald Trump there is a lot of the people in the audience didn't like him.

11:53Ben Meiselas:So it was hurting his feelings. And maybe that's why he didn't. This is the president of the United States. What do you mean? They didn't like him. This isn't some, you know, I'm trying to, you know, not offend like little children, or what do you mean they didn't like him and he got nervous? This is the president, right? What the hell was this? Here's Jennings. Here, play this clip. Who's putting this on there? I thought, what? At one point, he appeared to get annoyed with the material because it was on the prompter. And I I think maybe he realized that some of the things that were on the prompter were just not landing.

12:29By the way, that's a tough room. I mean, because let's be honest, a lot of the people in there don't like him. They're not inclined to laugh at his jokes. They're not inclined to be of his persuasion. And so to land something in there has got to be really good. And I think I got the feeling he got somewhat annoyed with the material. I was surprised he didn't take this opportunity, major opportunity, to make some news, like something you know that he wanted to announce or some point he wanted to drive home and and um

12:55Ben Meiselas:and they chose not to use the thing you know and then when donald trump was not speaking it looked like he was vomiting on his hand play this clip more than usual in the past few weeks is that a fair characterization i think that is an eminently fair characterization first of all to give you with you chris uh look and again this is not ai was donald trump falling asleep throughout this evening, even though the C-SPAN caller, I think the first C-SPAN caller was referring to the fact that Trump was not sleeping during his speech itself, but he was sleeping throughout the rest of the event. Here, play this clip.

13:39Ben Meiselas:One of the more disturbing parts, though, of the speech, though, in all seriousness though, is when he started to talk about Iran again. And he's like, maybe I'll do a deal. Maybe I won't do a deal. And while I want to mock him, obviously, the reality is, is that our service members are being killed as a result of this, the psycho who we're seeing give this speech. He's the psycho who's sending our service members into war and our service members are getting killed because of him in this catastrophic and unlawful war. There are so many Americans, you watching this, who are suffering right now as a result of this guy, as a result of this thing, as a result of this.

14:23Ben Meiselas:And so people in the United States are getting crushed right now. The cost of living is impossible. And this guy over here who's having imaginary conversations with ayatollahs that aren't happening and doing fake deals in his mind. And he thinks Xi Jinping is his friend and Putin is his friend. And then he has these MAGAs in the House and Senate who are like, yeah, Donald. It's like, no, this is a psychotic human. This is a deranged, cognitively addled, the 25th Amendment doesn't do it justice. I mean, this is a real sick thing that's speaking and he's killing people. He's killing people. He's killing Americans.

15:05Ben Meiselas:He's crushing this country. This guy's not fit to be anywhere near anything. Here, play this clip. That's the only thing I've ever, we were talking before. I said, so we've hit Iran very hard. Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. 250 jets, no longer. 159 boats, good boats. In fact, I said, why the hell didn't we keep them? We could have used them. But 159, but all at the bottom of the sea, they have no radar. They have very few drones left, despite what you see. And every once in a while, they're going to set some things up, but they don't have much left. And by the way, they are talking to us right now.

15:45They'd love to make a deal. I don't think they're ready to. I don't think it's time yet, but I'm willing to listen.

15:51Ben Meiselas:And by the way, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, Caroline Levitt said the following about that speech. She wrote, the president's speech will be a combination of unifying yet vicious and serious yet hilarious all at the same time. If you can imagine that one thing I can assure you, it will be entertaining. Caroline Levitt on Donald Trump's White House Correspondents in her speech. And notably, you have, you know, people like Murdoch and others who, you know, push these messages too. And again, you know, I'm not trying to be like Donald Trump doesn't have any agency over himself. He's a sicko who deserves to be tried for his war crimes in The Hague.

16:34Ben Meiselas:But you'll have New York Post say, go big or go home. Trump weighing massive attack on stalling Iran. You know, then it was like state regime media Fox owned by Murdoch yesterday. They were showing nuclear power plants like in Bushir in Iraq. And they were like, maybe he blows up Bushir in order to send a message that we control the Strait of Hormuz. It's like, maybe he blows up Bushir, a nuclear power plant that Russia's helped building and helped built with Iran. You think that makes sense to blow up the nuclear power plant and have like 10 times worse than Chernobyl in the region and have like a nuclear winter?

17:11Ben Meiselas:Like we shouldn't be worried that the president of the United States is so deranged and psychotic, he's going to start blowing up nuclear power plants because state regime media is telling him to do it. And here he was, remember, on the tarmac? Again, the deranged person who you saw at that White House Correspondents Dinner, here he is saying that the service members who died recently in the war, by the way, he deleted their names from the list of war debts because he claims epic fury is over and that there was a ceasefire so they didn't die during the war so he could lower the numbers of the war death that killed in action and injured.

17:48Ben Meiselas:Sicko. He's a psycho sicko. I don't care what political party you are. This isn't a political thing. And then he puts words in the mouth of the killed in action service members. And he said, all of them said very strongly, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Why are you defaming the killed in action service members. They didn't say any of those things. Why are you lying about what they're saying? He's a sick thing. Here, play this clip. I get some of you going with us to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and all of them said very strongly, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

18:31They They won't have a nuclear weapon. So we're going to honor them.

18:36Ben Meiselas:Now, in response to that, in response to Donald Trump saying that we're going to kill the Iranians, then you have Iran issuing statements like this. For every Iranian citizen killed, one U.S. soldier will be killed. We have prepared free direct tickets to hell for you. And remember, the person you saw in that White House Correspondents Dinner stage is the person who's there at 1 a.m., 3 a.m. posting, oh, I'm going to blow up the bridges and destroy the civilization and kill every Iranian and you're going to send you back to the Stone Age. He's a sick thing. This isn't a Democrat. He's a sick creature.

19:14Ben Meiselas:Do we all get that right? And it's causing all of us, you, everybody in the freaking world to be put in danger by this sick freaking creature in the Oval Office. Let me contrast that and we'll leave with a YouTube cleanser. if you will, Pete Buttigieg. Here's what he had to say when he went on state regime media Fox. Play this clip. Listen, then he did something else. So at this point, based on where we are, what would you like to see happen next if you were advising President Trump? Well, if I was advising President Trump, I'm trying to try to try that scenario on for size. I guess I'd advise him to start by telling the truth to the American people, because when he says it's going to be four weeks and then breaks that promise, it reminds people of when he said he wouldn't start this War and broke that promise.

19:58When he says he will settle for nothing less than unconditional surrender and regime change, and then changed his mind, backpedaled, and agreed to a framework for a ceasefire that was very different, then that ceasefire has been broken. The outrageous news that we just got, that the Trump administration removed the names of four of our service members who were killed in action, apparently because the fact that they had been killed in action goes against his fiction that sometimes he says we're actually not in a war, even though everybody knows we are. What I would say to him is, you know, when I was in uniform, when I was deployed, I knew that on some level, my life depended on the credibility of the people running our government.

20:40And American lives depend on him telling the truth, even when it's hard. Do you agree with removing Iran's nuclear case?

20:47Ben Meiselas:There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. By the way, do you have a copy of WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers? It comes out in October. Scan the QR code, wherever the QR code is, and put in the comments, WTF America. It helps if you pre-order it right now. It comes out in October, but the pre-orders help us know the locations where the books are being bought so we can decide where we're going to go on the book tour. All right. Thanks for watching. Hit subscribe. Appreciate you. Breaking news right now, my brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America. And well, doesn't that just say it all?

21:23Ben Meiselas:It comes out officially this October, but you can pre-order your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below.