It’s a truism that President Donald Trump loves attention. Even among politicians, a species not known for shunning limelight, he’s in a league of his own. And he matches desire with a peerless ability to make all eyes turn to him.
It is not always conscious or deliberate, even though, of course, he often rides roughshod over others. Those who have watched him up close, however, know he has a quality that means he probably could not fade into any background even if he wanted to. That quicksilver quality is charisma, and it means that even in a crowded room, everyone looks at him.
I first saw it at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, at which then-President Barack Obama used Trump as the butt of several well-delivered jokes. It is for that roasting that the gala dinner that year is remembered 15 years later.
But while what is remembered is Obama’s light but effective mockery, a demonstration of his prowess at delivering a suave and witty performance, I chiefly recall noticing several qualities in Trump that have since allowed him to shoulder past his predecessor in raw political achievement.
Before these annual dinners, scores of media companies throw parties, at which members of the Washington governing class swill drinks and bray at each other. I was at the Washington Post party when Trump arrived. There were many well-known people in the room, including movie stars and tycoons, any one of whom would be the main attraction on a TV talk show or would make paparazzi flashbulbs pop if he or she emerged from a limo for a premier.
But as Trump moved around the room, in which there must have been about 200 people, almost everyone turned toward him to get a glimpse. Many of them followed to shake his hand. The effect of the scene reminded me of being a child and watching iron filings being dragged around a card as someone moved a magnet underneath. All the little scraps oriented themselves to the magnet and surged in that direction. So it was with Trump. He didn’t do anything to draw attention to himself; it came to him unbidden.
Then, later, as he sat at a dinner table while Obama roasted him, Trump revealed other characteristics that help him keep winning in politics — and also keep the attention of those who hate. As joke after joke landed on his head, he sat still, not as though stunned, but rather as someone unperturbed.
Many around him were roaring with laughter at his expense. Others, including a couple of Trump friends at my table, were almost bursting out of their seats with indignation. But Trump himself looked steadily at his mocking antagonist, smiled, and occasionally raised an eyebrow. It would take a mentalist to know what his thoughts were, but his face had the look of a man thinking, “Sure. Have fun. My time will come.”
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His time came spectacularly in 2016 and 2024. But it will come in an acute way next month when, for the first time as president, Trump will attend the journalists’ dinner. He’ll be up on the dais this time, looking out at a crowd that cheered Obama as he mocked that orange would not be the new black.
Perhaps the thought will cross Trump’s mind, “He who laughs last … .”