Trump draws sharp correspondents’ dinner contrast with wild rally

President Trump celebrated his 100th day in office on Saturday by holding a freewheeling campaign-style rally, touting the early accomplishments of his at times turbulent first months in office.

The rally in Harrisburg, Pa., was familiar territory for Trump, who basked in the roars of the crowd as he ticked off various campaign pledges he said would get done while lobbying attacks at the media.

Trump held the rally with supporters as a contrast to the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, an annual star-studded gala in Washington that presidents typically attend.

“I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp, spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd and much better people,” Trump said. 

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He also sought to push back on coverage of his first 100 days in office, which did not see any major legislative victories and a number of controversies surrounding executive orders blocked in court.

“If the media’s job is to be honest and to tell the truth, then I think we would all agree the media deserves a very, very big, fat failing grade,” he said.

Trump also took direct aim at Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), accusing him of leading the Democratic Party “to doom.”

“Sen. Schumer is bad leader,” Trump said. “I’ve known him a long time. Sen. Schumer is a bad leader. Not a natural leader at all. He works hard to study leadership. When you have to study leadership, you’ve got problems.

“Sen. Schumer is weak on crime and wants to raise your taxes through the roof. He is a poor leader — known him a long time — and he’s leading the Democrats to doom.”

In his first 100 days in office, Trump boasted, his administration had driven down the number of undocumented immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, he had begun the process of rebuilding the country’s military and he had freed an Egyptian-American aid worker trapped in a Cairo prison — something former President Obama hadn’t been able to do for several years, he said.

“We’ve started from day one,” Trump said. “And that is what we’ve delivered: 100 days of action.”

But absent from Trump’s speech was any mention of the controversies and challenges that await him back in Washington, including deep GOP divisions over healthcare and tax reform.

His first months in office have been largely overshadowed by legislative and legal challenges, as well as an ongoing federal investigations into alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.