One of the more interesting traditions in American politics is the political roast dinner.
Candidates and elected officials attend charity events put on by major powerbrokers where they poke good-natured fun at each other.
As one of these events, the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner hosted in Manhattan, drew closer Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump prepared to laugh in the midst of one of the most caustic and dysfunctional campaigns in recent memory.
What would happen, folks wondered. Well, if you watch selectively edited clips of the event, it seems everything was business as usual. Both candidates poking fun at each other and laughing as the scripted jokes landed with careful accuracy. But, if you read more comprehensive reports of the evening, it appears to have been the train wreck some expected.
An editorial in The New York Times claimed Trump compared himself to Jesus, saying, growing up he was just a “carpenter working for his father.”
Further, the article claimed Trump went after Hillary for being corrupt, bigoted, and headed for jail. So, you know, pretty much like the debates. The same report claims Trump was repeatedly booed at the dinner.
His set began well enough, with Trump making light hearted jokes about himself and about the Democratic candidate. Then he progressed into more of what is often found on his Twitter feed, which, according to the Times, was not well-received by the old money aristocracy in the room.
Trump pivoted from a deadpan delivery about “pardoning” Hillary, which landed well in the room — even with the target of the joke — to a series of comments about how she hated Catholics and was irreparably corrupted. Somewhere along the line, Trump lost the room.
The Times seems to see this as evidence of Trump’s tone deafness to the acceptance of Clinton as the presumptive election winner.
As my friend Elie Hirschfeld, a former partner of Donald Trump’s noted, “Maybe it is evidence of something Trump has pointed out time and again — he just isn’t accepted by the old-money elite. They think he’s too brash, too outspoken, and too much of a showman.”
But, while that animosity exists between Trump and his financial colleagues, it’s also part of his appeal to the masses who support him. They love that Trump isn’t accepted by people who they feel step over and on them on a daily basis.
They celebrate stories like Trump’s fight with well-heeled residents regarding his Mar-A-Lago resort, so the fact that he lost a room full of people they blame for the state of things in America is a point in his favor.
Trump lost the room, but that may have been the goal.
Ronn Torossian is one of America’s foremost Public Relations executives as founder/CEO of 5WPR, a leading independent PR Agency. The firm was honored as PR Firm of the Year by The American Business Awards, and has been named to the Inc. 500 List. Torossian is author of the best-selling "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations." For more of Ronn Torossian's reports, Go Here Now.
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