President Donald Trump appeared to reveal much about his own inner workings during his appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but according to a new breakdown from The Daily Beast, he also exposed a major "weakness that will be his undoing."
In a piece published Saturday afternoon, The Daily Beast's chief national correspondent, David Gardner, observed how his "faith in [Trump] and his administration has dwindled a little more" each day that he has covered them, despite his ability as a journalist to
find the positive in the most heinous situations." Trump, he added, "has eaten at my soul."
In spite of this mounting despair, Gardner said that what he saw during the correspondents' dinner on Friday gave him "some hope," exposing how much Trump, and his political power, is tied up in his obsession with TV and getting attention.
"It seemed a good sign that Trump wanted to give it another go, and the early signs looked promising," Gardner wrote. "He was clearly catching up with some sleep when he first arrived. Maybe because it wasn’t about him. But he came alive when the award ceremony began. He shrugged. He smiled. He smirked. He spoke out of the side of his mouth to Karoline Leavitt with quips and asides that felt to the audience like he was genuinely enjoying himself."
Even as he watched the Wall Street Journal receive an award for coverage of his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, during the presentation of which CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer did not avoid criticizing him, Trump appeared to be "a good sport" about the situation, to Gardner's shock. Even as his own mockery of the press took a "dark" turn later in the evening, it was evident throughout the event how much Trump depends on the media to project his all-important image — a dependency that could ultimately prove to be his undoing.
"If there is one thing the president understands, it’s good TV," he continued. "And he woke up from his table nap to realize that he was the star of some surprisingly hilarious television. No matter that he was the butt of the joke. He was still the center of attention. And that’s what drives him."
He added later: "Press freedom is undeniably under threat from Trump and his acolytes like Stephen Miller. But Trump needs to understand that he needs the press. On some level, he must know that when the camera lights fade away, so does he. And by that time, there will be plenty lining up to make his legacy known—first and foremost, that it just wasn’t a very good show."
