Donald Trump says Fox News staffers helped him write some of the jokes he delivered at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday evening.
Speaking on Fox & Friends the morning after the event in New York City, the former president discussed his monologue at the annual charitable dinner as part of a broader conversation about the event.
“Your material is really funny. Who wrote it?” asked host Steve Doocy after mentioning that some Democrats hire Saturday Night Live members to write their humorous speeches.
“Well, I’ve had a lot of people helping, a lot of people,” Trump replied. “A couple of people from Fox, actually. I shouldn’t say that, but they wrote some jokes, and for the most part, I didn’t like any of them, right?” he said with a laugh.
After Trump’s remarks on the show, Fox denied any involvement. A Fox spokesperson told CNN that “no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes.”
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her remarks via a prerecorded video after confirming that she would not attend the $5,000-a-plate event. Trump appeared in person and used the opportunity to take jabs at his political opponents, including Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner on Thursday in New York City. The next day, he told “Fox & Friends” that Fox News staffers helped him write some of the jokes he delivered at the event.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
In a stand-up-style routine, Trump took aim at New York Mayor Eric Adams, other Democrats and, of course, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
“This guy was calling us weird,” he said of Walz, “but it was weird that the Democratic candidate wasn’t here tonight.”
Trump went on: “She’s in Michigan receiving Communion from [Michigan Governor] Gretchen Whitmer.” He was referring to Harris’ efforts to shore up support in the battleground state as well as a widely criticized video in which Whitmer fed Doritos to a podcaster, which some felt mocked the Catholic sacrament of Communion.
Trump also took a shot at Harris’ intelligence. “Right now, we have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have the mental faculties of a child. There’s a person that has nothing going on. No intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris,” he said.
Some of his jokes received groans from the audience.
“There’s a group called White Dudes for Harris, but I’m not worried because their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me,” he quipped.
Harris’ team said that instead of attending the dinner it was focusing on rallies in swing states. Her absence made her the second major-party candidate to decline an invitation to the event in over six decades. The first was Democrat Walter Mondale, who skipped the event in 1984.
In that presidential election, Mondale went on to suffer a landslide defeat against Ronald Reagan, the last time a candidate won the popular vote by double digits.
