Trump was ‘beside himself with fury’ after Obama roasted him over racist ‘birther’ conspiracy, new book claims

The former Republican president later ruled-out attending the annual event

Donald Trump was apparently “beside himself with fury” following the 2011 White House Correspondents’ dinner and Barack Obama’s roasting of him.

Mr Obama infamously berated Mr Trump for furthering the racist “birther” conspiracy which claimed the president was not a US citizen and therefore could not be US president.

Chris Christie, who was attending the dinner along with Mr Trump, describes in his new book how Mr Trump was “beside himself with fury” after the dinner.

“I spoke to Donald after the dinner,” Mr Christie alleged in Republican Rescue. “He was p***** off like I’d never seen him before. Just beside himself with fury.”

Mr 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,” Mr Christie wrote in his book, as reported by The New York Times.

The former Republican governor of New Jersey, who backed Mr Trump in 2016 and 2020, went on to allege that his conspiracy theorising “paved the way for wave after wave of other conspiracies to come”, including the Big Lie about his election loss.

Mr Christie, who incorrectly predicted that Mr Trump would accept defeat and the transition of power, described the conspiracy theories currently circulating in the US as “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.”

Mr Obama, who had released his birth certificate days before the 2011 dinner, told the audience at Washington DC’s Hilton Hotel that “no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald”.

“And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

Seth Meyers, a former star of Saturday Night Live, also roasted Mr Trump for  his “fox”-like mane of hair, alleged support of conspiracy theories and his reality TV show The Apprentice.

Mr Trump toldThe Washington Post afterwards that he had “a phenomenal time”, and even a “good evening” at the annual event, which he refused to attend in 2017 during his first year in office, and later banned his administration officials from going.