Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, published a lengthy statement Saturday reacting to Trump’s address at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which was held Friday night at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington — three months after a gunman disrupted the original April event.
“I watched Trump’s speech at the Correspondents’ Dinner last night,” Biden wrote on social media. “It’s hard to articulate how sad it made me. Sad and embarrassed and exhausted.”
‘He Can’t Tell One’
Biden’s critique centered on what he described as Trump’s fundamental inability to laugh at himself — a quality he argued is essential to genuine humor.
“Here is the thing about a man who is a joke. He can’t tell one,” Biden wrote. “People think humor is a talent. It isn’t. It’s a capacity. To make someone laugh you have to be able to laugh at yourself, and to laugh at yourself you have to step outside of yourself and see what everyone else sees. For one second you have to be just another person in the room.”
Biden noted that “most people can do this by the time they are nine years old” — but Trump, he said, “has never once managed it. Not in fifty years of cameras. Not for a second.”
He framed this not as a mere quirk but as a deeper symptom. “The muscle that lets you tell a joke is the same one that lets you feel what another person feels,” Biden wrote. “A man who cannot survive being laughed at cannot imagine being anyone but himself. He will only ever be generous when it is photographed. He will only ever be kind when it is filmed. There is a name for it.”
An Hour of Insults
Trump’s speech, which lasted just over an hour, was widely described by news outlets as rambling and insult-filled. He took aim at journalists by name — including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, whom he again accused of not smiling enough — as well as Democratic politicians including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Joe Biden.
“He made jokes about people’s weight. He made jokes about their intelligence. He made jokes about how women look,” Biden wrote. “He read out the names of people he doesn’t like, and mocked them. Always mocking. And when no one laughed he blamed his speech writers.”
Multiple reports confirmed the awkward reception. The New York Times noted that “scripted jokes fell flat”. At one point, after a joke bombed, Trump remarked: “That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole freaking stupid speech.” The audience’s friendly laughs gradually gave way to “scattered titters as the insults piled up,” according to the Associated Press.
Trump also made a joke about the April shooting that disrupted the original dinner, quipping that when people shouted “get down,” Nicki Minaj started twerking because she “really understood” the command. He made brief mention of the Iran war and the ballroom he is building at the White House.
The ‘Trump 2028’ Moment
Biden saved particular scorn for the president’s closing gesture.
“At the end of it he put on a red hat that said Trump 2028 and told the room he was running again,” Biden wrote. “No one laughed because everyone knows he has no intention of leaving. Just another joke at our expense.”
Trump donned the “Trump 2028” cap and announced, “I’m pleased to announce my intention to … run for a fourth term as president of the United States”. The remark was a joke about seeking a third term — something barred by the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment. The speech ended with “stunned silence or nervous laughter” from some attendees.
Direct Appeal to Trump Supporters
In a direct and unsparing passage, Biden addressed Trump’s base directly:
“For the 30% of you still in the cult who will inevitably call me a crackhead and blame it all on my Dad, all I can say is please, for the love of God, open your eyes. Wake the fuck up. Have some dignity. Have some pride.”
He concluded with a pointed reminder: “Joe Biden wasn’t standing at that podium last night. Donald Trump was.”
Statement Goes Viral
Biden’s remarks spread rapidly across social media Saturday, drawing widespread attention. The statement comes amid a broader national conversation about Trump’s relationship with the press. Several hundred journalists and professional organizations had signed a letter urging the correspondents’ association to use the dinner to condemn what they called Trump’s attacks on the First Amendment.
The dinner itself was a rescheduled affair. The original April event was cut short when a gunman, later identified as Cole Allen, tried to force his way through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the ballroom where Trump and cabinet members were seated. Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempting to assassinate the president. The rescheduled dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria — formerly the Trump International Hotel — with enhanced security.
Trump, whose administration has frequently clashed with the media, told the crowd: “We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate”. But much of his hour-long address veered into familiar attack lines against his political adversaries.
Biden’s statement offered a sharp rejoinder: “The cruelty dressed as humor has worn so thin.”
