The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was originally conceived as a brief, harmless truce between the press corps and the presidency — an evening where the leader of the free world submits to a bit of self-deprecation to prove that American democracy is sturdy enough to survive a punchline.
But on Friday night inside the Waldorf Astoria, Donald Trump didn't offer self-deprecation. He offered a shambolic, grievance-laden routine that was less a comedy set than a stark window into a presidency that views democratic guardrails as props and political norms as punchlines.
