Was his joke the reason Trump ran for president? Some say so, and it torments him

Boston Globe ^ | 10-30-2020 | Mark Shanahan

[raccoonradio]

When the definitive history of Donald Trump’s presidency is written, it’ll likely begin on April 30, 2011, long before he was actually elected.

That’s when Seth Meyers, then the anchor of “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” told a joke that, some believe, so infuriated Trump he resolved to run for president.

Speaking at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that night, Meyers acknowledged Trump in the audience, and then said: “Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”

It got a big laugh, but not from Trump, who who sat rigid and stone-faced in the audience, staring daggers at Meyers.
(snip)
Meyers didn’t write that joke. Comedian Jon Rineman did — and he regrets it. Talking publicly for the first time about the one-liner regarded by some as a pivotal moment in American political history, Rineman thinks he and the country would be better off today if he never scribbled that joke in his notebook. He’s not kidding. Rineman is tormented by the idea that he could be one of the reasons Trump became president.

Was the run for president in 2016 Trump’s revenge? Some think so.

“On that night, Trump’s own sense of public humiliation became so overwhelming that he decided, perhaps at first unconsciously, that he would, somehow, get his own back — perhaps even pursue the presidency after all, no matter how nihilistically or absurdly, and redeem himself,” The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, who was seated a few tables from Trump at the dinner, wrote in 2015.

[SunkenCiv]

:^D

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Oh fer Pete’s sake......they act like he really is a spoiled toddler. Those that listen to crap like this are in for a shock.