Donald Trump Was 'Treated Like a Joke' Before Becoming President, Journalist Reveals: 'He Did Not Like It'

Political commentator and journalist Mark Halperin attended the 2025 TIME100 gala on Thursday, April 24, where he discussed how President Donald Trump was treated unfairly in 2011 before his political takeover in 2016, when he was elected as the 45th president.

“They treated him like a joke. And of course, as you know, that’s how he was largely treated. It’s that same year that he spoke at CPAC. It’s really how I got to meet him, originally. He spoke at CPAC; he gave the most, the best-received speech of the whole group in 2011,” Halperin recalled.

The former MSNBC analyst recounted going on TV the morning after Trump’s speech, where he publicly supported the then-new political figure: “I said, ‘You may not take him seriously, but take his idea seriously because they have a lot of resonance with the American people,’ and that’s how he felt about himself. He did feel, of course, like he was a joke.”

Halperin continued, “He sat at the dinner, I think he was sitting at the Washington Post table pretty close to the stage, and here you have the sitting President of [the] United States and Seth Meyers making fun of him, and he did not like it. I don't think it’s what caused him to run in some linear way, but I definitely think it was part of his psychology of saying, ‘I’m going to prove that I’m not a joke. I’m going to prove that I’m a serious person.’ And of course, five years later, he did.”

The journalist went on to detail how he was mocked by NBC for supporting Trump, sharing, “They put on the website that clip of Brian [Williams] making fun of me for saying Trump might win, and that headline was something like, ‘Brian Williams Schools Mark Halperin.’ And I was like, ‘Guys, I work here. Don’t put on a clip mocking me.’ And then, of course, spoiler alert, Trump won.”

Halperin noted his support for Trump ahead of his first administration was a tough part of covering the now-president’s campaign. “In the intervening days, I grew more confident that he might win… I covered Trump rallies that year in 30 states,” he said.

Halperin continued, “And so it seemed obvious to me that he might win. And yet that clip was probably the most extreme example of what I experienced for most of the year, as I told people, as I started doing in 2011, ‘Do not underestimate the resonance he has with tens of millions of people.’”

Though Halperin was scrutinized for his prediction, Trump was elected as president not once, but twice, and is even considering finding a way to run for a third term, as he claimed in March that “a lot of people want me to do it.”