--- title: Donald Trump: Barack Obama's Joking Speech from 2011 description: President Obama got a few licks in at Donald Trump t the White House Correspondents' dinner in 2011. canonical: https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-10T19:26:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:10.198Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011 og:description: Trump later said the event was "like a roast" og:url: https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca175dc57dbc5294/69885e97e53aba717b4df012/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump talks with the media at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, April 30, 2011. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011 twitter:description: Trump later said the event was "like a roast" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca175dc57dbc5294/69885e97e53aba717b4df012/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011 by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 10, 2015 7:26 PM UTC  Donald Trump talks with the media at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, April 30, 2011. Donald Trump talks with the media at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, April 30, 2011.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 10, 2015 7:26 PM UTC President Obama hasn’t yet had much to say about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But he got more than a few licks in at the real estate mogul a few years ago at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Trump was an [invited guest](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/white-house-correspondents-dinner-guests-whyd-they-get-invited/2011/04/27/AFiH250E%5Fblog.html) of the Washington _Post_ at the April 30, 2011, dinner and seen then as a potential Republican challenger to the President the following year. Obama took advantage of Trump’s presence to mock him mercilessly, especially over the entrepreneur’s publicly stated doubts about his place of birth. Here’s what Obama said: --- > “” --- Obama’s jokes at Trump’s expense are even more remarkable in retrospect, as they were made during the final stages of the preparation for the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden—the very kind of thing that does keep a President up at night. Trump relished the attention, even if he didn’t like the actual jokes, saying the dinner was [“like a roast.” ](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/nyregion/after-roasting-trump-reacts-in-character.html) The President referenced Trump again at the 2015 correspondents’ dinner, but didn’t mince words this time: [“And Donald Trump is here](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/25/remarks-president-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner),” he said. “Still.” Donald Trump: Barack Obama's Joking Speech from 2011 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/"},"headline":"Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011","datePublished":"2015-08-10T19:26:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:10.198Z","description":"\"Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House\"","url":"https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","Barack Obama","White House","White House Correspondents Dinner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca175dc57dbc5294/69885e97e53aba717b4df012/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca175dc57dbc5294/69885e97e53aba717b4df012/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump talks with the media at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, April 30, 2011.","caption":"Donald Trump talks with the media at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, April 30, 2011.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/","name":"Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011"}}]}] ```