It’s confirmed: Donald Trump is funny only when you’re laughing at him, not with him.
The president, 79, bombed spectacularly while trying his hand at comedy on Saturday during the annual black-tie dinner at D.C.’s Alfalfa Club, an elite social club for some of the world’s most powerful figures, the Washington Post reported.
The club, founded in 1913 to celebrate Confederate general Robert E. Lee, now counts among its members billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, as well as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and former president George W. Bush. Other notable figures include Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Trump is having investigated, and David Rubenstein, the financier Trump ousted as head of the Kennedy Center last year.
Trump’s jokes about invading Greenland and bombing Iran landed with an audible thud, according to the Post. “So many people in the room I hate. Most of you I like,” he quipped in his opening roast-style remarks, an attendee told the outlet. “Who in the hell thought this was going to happen?”
He then fantasized about conquering even more countries, joking, “We’re not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it. It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state. I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd.”
Trump then set his sights on Kevin Warsh, his nominee to replace Powell as Fed chairman, threatening to “sue his a– off” if interest rates weren’t lowered. Warsh, 55, is a financier and bank executive married to billionaire heiress Jane Lauder, whose grandparents founded Estée Lauder. His father-in-law reportedly suggested the Greenland purchase to Trump during his first term.
Former presidential candidate and dinner attendee Mitt Romney also came under fire, ridiculed as a “left-winger,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Rather than laugh, the audience applauded Romney in defiance. Trump’s other targets included Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren, and he even managed to work in a brag about his White House ballroom—all of which fell flat, according to multiple accounts.
The president also referenced the first lady and her widely criticized documentary, Melania, quipping, “When she gets mad at me, it’s like being at Davos all over again,” a nod to his feud with NATO allies over the attempted purchase of Greenland.
On Monday, the Democratic National Committee slammed Trump for attending “one of Washington’s most exclusive gatherings of the rich and powerful” while the country faces an affordability crisis.
“Donald Trump promised to ‘Drain the Swamp,’ but here he is dining with his billionaire buddies and wealthy donors,” the DNC said. “Grocery costs are at an all-time high, rent prices are soaring, the labor market is shedding jobs at a breakneck pace, and everyday Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Trump is attending ritzy fundraisers, fixating on his ‘complete rebuilding’ of the Kennedy Center, and building his $400 million gilded ballroom.”
The Alfalfa Club has long hosted presidents. Barack Obama joked in 2012, “One of my big goals this year was to get out and be among everyday, ordinary Americans…like the men and women of the Alfalfa Club.” Bill Clinton famously boycotted the club until it welcomed its first female members in 1994.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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