Jen Psaki said President Donald Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom makeover proves not only that he has horrible taste, but also that he’s the “walking, talking parody of himself” that Barack Obama joked about 14 years ago.
“I want to take you back to the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Yes, that one. You know, the Correspondents’ Dinner — it’s the annual Washington tradition, kind of a weird one where the president and members of the press get together, maybe have a few drinks,” Psaki said on Thursday night’s episode of “The Briefing.” “They tell a few jokes at each other’s expense. But in 2011, the dinner was especially notable because that was the year that Barack Obama got up and absolutely roasted Donald Trump. And there was one joke from that night that I think has a certain resonance today.”
Psaki then played a clip of Obama from the dinner where he said, “Say what you will about Mr. Trump. He certainly would bring some change to the White House.” The former president then showed a mockup of the White House made to look like one of Trump’s casinos. In the clip, the entire room erupts in laughter — well, everyone except Trump.
“He does not look thrilled,” the MSNBC host noted. “But that was then-President Barack Obama imagining what felt at the time like a completely crazy, bananas universe — an alternate one where Trump becomes president and renovates the White House to look like one of his tacky hotels and casinos.”
She continued: “But now, of course, we are living in that crazy, wacky alternate universe that Obama conjured up that night a long time ago. By now, you’ve seen the images of Donald Trump’s construction crews tearing down the entire East Wing of the White House to make room for a gaudy new ballroom Trump plans to build in its place.”
This week, the Trump administration demolished the East Wing of the White House with plans to build a $300 million dollar ballroom in its place. The move has sparked backlash from the public and many Democratic politicians because Trump did not seek approval from Congress or the NCPC (National Capital Planning Commission). Psaki empathized with the frustration many are feeling, but also pointed out that Trump has unwittingly made Obama’s joke about him all those years ago true.
“Trump is literally making himself the punchline of a 14-year-old joke. A joke about what might happen if a narcissistic real estate developer with horrible taste became the president of the United States. He’s proving once again that he remains kind of a captive of the very stereotype that’s made him a target of ridicule like that for so many years. He just can’t seem to help himself.”
Psaki went on to call Trump “a walking, talking parody of himself.” She noted that this doesn’t minimize the dangerous decisions he’s made while in office, but did point out that “authoritarian leaders can become so caught up in projecting their own power that their levels of blatant public corruption just get more laughable as they go.”
She also said his actions expose the president for the “small man that he is,” as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker took new actions against Trump’s ICE deployment and attempts to redraw congressional maps.
“He is cruel and he is very corrupt. He’s knocking down the White House for a ballroom, shaking down American taxpayers and pardoning a crypto CEO who has been a huge proponent of his own crypto business,” Psaki concluded. “All of that is true. All of that is insane. But he is weak. He’s not strong. And he is growing more and more unpopular. He’s become a version of his own joke — a joke about himself. And Democrats know it.”
