The Gridiron Dinner—a 140-year-old gathering of Washington’s political and media elite—once again lived up to its reputation as an insular, self-congratulatory spectacle where journalists and politicians rub elbows and exchange inside jokes.
The event, held in a packed Hyatt basement, featured the usual roster of elected officials, media figures, and ambassadors laughing at their own jokes about Russia, Trump, and the so-called “breakdown of the global order.”
This year, for the first time, the president was not the focal point of the evening’s toasts. Instead, the attendees raised their glasses to the First Amendment—which is ironic, given that this is the same crowd that spent years cheering for social media censorship and government-backed suppression of dissenting voices.
Trump skipped this dinner when he was in office, and he didn’t miss much. The jabs at him over Russia are particularly telling, considering the Russia collusion hoax is the very story that obliterated the media’s credibility for millions of Americans.
The people in that room—those still clinging to the false narrative—are the same ones watching their influence slip away as Trump and Elon Musk continue dismantling their old grift machine through the Department of Government Efficiency.
This isn’t satire, folks. ***They. Still. Don’t. Get. It.*** pic.twitter.com/nEdDQAZ4P6
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) March 17, 2025
Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a rising star in the Democratic Party, delivered one of the evening’s so-called highlights. He used his moment on stage to take a swipe at Trump, joking, “If I actually wanted to be president, I wouldn’t do any of this. Instead, I would take my case directly to the people who are in charge of our democracy. The Kremlin.”
Yes, even after years of their Russia obsession being debunked, the Washington elite still think this joke kills. And of course, the room full of reporters, editors, and television anchors laughed along.
Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics summed it up best: these people still don’t get it and never will. They’re the pigs in Animal Farm—drunk on their own self-importance, oblivious to the reality outside their carefully curated world.
While they sip champagne and trade barbs about Trump, the rest of America is focused on real issues: the economy, border security, energy independence, and the weaponization of government agencies against political opponents.
