WHY HE RAN FOR POTUS; ANTIOBAMA

Trump was 'beside himself with fury' after Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner: book

Eliza Relman,Sonam Sheth
Tue, November 16, 2021, 

Then-President Donald Trump and then-first lady Melania Trump with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama at the state funeral of former US president George H.W. Bush in 2018.MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images

Chris Christie writes that Trump was "beside himself with fury" at the 2011 correspondents' dinner.

Obama famously skewered Trump for his promotion of the racist "birther" conspiracy theory.

"I spoke to Donald after the dinner," Christie said. "He was pissed off like I'd never seen him."

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie writes in his new memoir that Donald Trump was "beside himself with fury" when then-President Barack Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner.

Obama famously made a flurry of biting jokes about Trump and his promotion of the racist "birther" conspiracy theory at the annual Washington dinner.

At one point, Obama joked that since his long-form birth certificate had been released, Trump could move on to other outrageous conspiracy theories. Trump, then the host of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," sat in the audience and glowered.

"It was fascinating and excruciating all at once," Christie, who also attended the dinner, writes of watching Obama's roast and Trump's reaction in his book, "Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden."

Obama "never turned his eyes away from the man who'd been questioning his right to be president. He showed no mercy on Donald Trump."

Christie said Trump was furious after the event. Some have speculated that the evening of public humiliation helped fuel Trump's desire to run for president four years later.

"I spoke to Donald after the dinner," Christie said. "He was pissed off like I'd never seen him before. Just beside himself with fury."

In his book, Christie is critical of Trump's aggressive promotion of the birther conspiracy theory, which Trump pushed until September 2016, and writes that it "paved the way for wave after wave of other conspiracies to come, wild fantasies, far-fetched assertions, bizarre allegations, and outright lies."

He added, "It showed that personal falsehoods, even when plainly disproven, can still do political damage. Lies, even discredited lies, never really go away."

But despite what Christie writes were Trump's obvious lies, the former New Jersey governor delivered Trump significant political momentum when he became one of the first prominent Republican politicians to endorse his 2016 presidential bid.