We know that Donald Trump skipped the White House Correspondents' Dinner for the second year in a row. He knew that the main focus of all the jokes would be him and his administration, and he simply cannot stand to be criticized in any manner. After skipping the dinner, whined in numerous tweets about how unfair the jokes were to him and his aides.
But the jokes were no better or worse than in any past correspondents' dinner -- and in the past, the presidents have all attended, took the barbs good-naturedly, and returned some. It was not person, but fun. The only exception was the one year Reagan missed the dinner. But he had a great excuse, since he was in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds.
The sad fact is that Donald Trump is a coward. But it's not just jokes that he's afraid of. He's absolutely terrified of tough questions from journalists. Note the chart above. It shows the number of official solo press conferences held by each president in the first two years of their presidency.
Not every president enjoys those solo press conferences. For instance, George W. Bush had only 7 in the first two years, while his father had the most at 56 in the first two years. But all have recognized that the public deserves to know what's happening, and the best way to accomplish that is to meet with the press and answer their questions.
The exception among presidents is Donald Trump. Trump has only held 1 solo press conference. He evidently didn't like that experience, because he has not held a second. Instead, he tweets out lies using Twitter. The press can't ask him hard questions when he does that. And when they point out his Twitter mistakes and lies, he sends out Sarah Huckabee Sanders to repeat his lies and/or make excuses for them. She takes the heat from the press because her boss is too cowardly to do it.
The only time the press has any access to Trump is when he has a joint press conference with visiting dignitaries, and then the period for questions is very limited (and many times Trump won't answer questions not related to his visitor and what they discussed).
Donald Trump is a COWARD.
Now we learn that the special prosecutor has submitted a list of about 50 questions they would like for Trump to answer. His lawyers wrangled those questions of the the special prosecutor, and are still trying to negotiate letting him answer them in writing instead of appearing in person to be questioned.
That's quite different than his 2016 presidential opponent. She appeared before Congress and was questioned for 11 grueling hours. She never took the Fifth, she never hid behind her lawyers, she never lied, and she never demanded the questions be submitted in advance so she could prepare answers. Trump is far different. While Clinton showed honesty and courage, Trump shows cowardice.
Whichever side of the political spectrum we are on, we have had presidents that we disagree with. But we have now, for the first time, a coward living in our White House.