The moment — Mr. Trump, in a rare appearance in front of a hostile crowd, exposed and taunted — recalled a very different clip from spring 2011. This was the White House Correspondents Dinner, where he was roasted by President Obama just the day before the Bin Laden announcement.
Mr. Obama, at that point aware of the operation against the terrorist leader, had just released the long-form version of his birth certificate, to quell Mr. Trump’s racist fiction that the president had been born in Africa, not the United States.
Mr. Trump, a guest at the dinner, was roasted by the host, the comedian Seth Meyers. He was also done to a turn on camera by the president, who urged him to focus on “the issues that matter: Like, did we fake the moon landing?” Mr. Trump, at the time famous for delivering zingers on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” was stuck at his table, a stiff grin on his lips, as his face journeyed toward the red end of the color spectrum.
Sunday, Mr. Trump may have thought that he would get, that he deserved, his own Bin Laden moment. But it was typical of this febrile time that that moment would be shouted over, within the same day, by a parody of a campaign-trail taunt.
Mockery feels good, but it can have unintended effects. According to some Trump associates, his 2011 filleting goaded him to run for president four years later. Said the former “Apprentice” contestant and future Trump administration staffer Omarosa Manigault: “Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump.”
But now he was president, and they were booing, not bowing. Maybe the Washington crowd’s chant will fuel the president, and his supporters, in his re-election campaign. For this evening, however, there was nothing to do but grin — that grin fading to a grimace — and bear it.