For release: 07/28/26
Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Content Agency
President Trump’s performance at last Friday’s retooled White House Correspondents’ Dinner made me nostalgic for the days of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s media attack dog. In a speech, Agnew called politicians critical of Nixon administration policies “nattering nabobs of negativism, a phrase written by his speechwriter William Safire, and later usurped by media to apply to journalists.
That was mild compared to the disgusting personal insults Trump hurled at journalists who were at the dinner to support the White House Correspondents Association’s scholarship awards for young journalists and to honor reporters who uphold the principles of free speech and write the truth under often precarious and dangerous conditions, penning stories of fact that Trump doesn’t like.
In case you were watching something else, or reading a book (and you are fortunate if you did miss his hour-long speech), here are just a few lowlights of what in a previous generation would have sent someone who used such language to the kitchen sink where grandma might have washed their mouths out with soap.
“I hate some people,” said the president. He has claimed to be a Christian. Many of his evangelical supporters believe him to be one. It is not judgmental to ask if hating others is reflective of normal Christian behavior?
Trump was just getting warmed up.
The meandering speech which, as usual, frequently went off-script, got personal. The jokes, such as they were, fell flat. Even his administration’s sycophants found it difficult to yuck it up in the face of so many insults. He compared the “really beat-up faces” of UFC fighters with those of Bette Midler, Jane Fonda and Bruce Springsteen. He also singled out Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rosie O’Donnell, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), former New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie (whom Trump has mocked before over Christie’s weight struggles), and retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler. (D-NY). As The New York Times put it: “The president wasn’t telling jokes so much as he was repeating attack lines one hears at a standard MAGA rally.” At least he shook hands with the award winners, including those he previously labeled “fake news,” which is one of his milder insults.
In what may have been his only positive statement of the evening (when he wasn’t praising himself), the president thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement for the “great job” they do. That earned a round of applause, not for him, but for them.
I wrote a book a few years ago that contained a chapter on some of my printable hate mail. Calling me names, rather than presenting cogent arguments opposing my positions, didn’t change my mind. Some who have written to me with respectful disagreement get a reading and usually a response. Sometimes I see the point of their position, and sometimes I have agreed with some of them. If you have been called names, did it change your mind? Probably not.
Polls show most journalists vote for Democrats and are politically liberal. Republicans Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were good examples of how self-deprecating humor can disarm their journalism critics. Look up their remarks at previous White House Correspondents’ dinners on YouTube.
Trump seems incapable of self-deprecation, because he is a malignant narcissist, believing the world revolves around him. Count the number of times he uses personal pronouns. He rarely says “we” or “they,” giving credit to others. Saying “good job” doesn’t count. At some point, even people who agree with many of his policies (like me) grow tired of the crude language, the vile insults and the repetition of lines we have heard countless times.
I turned off the TV 15 minutes into his speech. I suspect I wasn’t alone.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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