Donald Trump makes awkward gesture after JD Vance makes joke at his expense

President Donald Trump made a strange gesture when he realized that he had become the butt of Vice President JD Vance's joke during remarks delivered at the annual National Governors Association dinner at the White House

President Donald Trump made an awkward gesture after Vice President JD Vance made a joke at his expense, grinning and gesticulating at him as if to say, "Get a load of this guy."

After being invited to the podium to provide a few remarks to the governors who had gathered for the annual National Governors Association dinner at the White House, Vance joked that his job and that of U.S. senators was easier than Trump's or the governors' in that nobody blames them when things go wrong.

"Well, I didn't expect that, sir, so I don't have anything prepared, but I will say that, like Marco Rubio and a few others, I served in the United States Senate, and Mr. President, what I admire so much about you and the governors is that you guys actually have to make decisions. You have to live by those decisions, and you have to suffer the consequences or enjoy the rewards of those decisions," Vance began his brief remarks. It comes as alarming state-by-state polling shows Trump is in a death spiral ahead of a huge moment.

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"The good thing about being a United States senator, like the good thing about being vice president," he continued, "is that nobody blames you when anything goes wrong."

It was as he delivered that line that Trump jabbed at him with his thumbs, chuckling to himself. That gesture — and the vice president's joke — garnered a burst of laughter from the governors.

Trump hosted governors from both parties for the annual NGA dinner on Saturday night — a night meant for them to come together, socialize and spend a low-key evening with the president.

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But, as with most traditions during Trump's second term, the dinner has proven unusually controversial.

Ahead of this week's gathering of the National Governors Association, Trump ridiculed the bipartisan group's leadership, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland.

He refused to invite Moore and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to a working event at the White House on Friday but ultimately relented at the last minute. But even then, the event was cut short when Trump learned of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down his sweeping tariff policy — leading even some Republicans to be frustrated by the turbulence of the week.

"It was unfortunate that the Supreme Court came out with a bad ruling at that time," said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and top Trump ally, according to The Associated Press.

Dozens of Democrats had already threatened to boycott the dinner if members of their party were blocked from the working meeting. Moore's last-minute attendance on Friday still didn't change some minds about that, with some Democrats still vowing to boycott the Saturday dinner.

President Trump has made this whole thing a farce," Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement explaining her decision to skip the dinner.

Some of the Democratic governors are planning to attend an alternative event, according to a person with knowledge of the plans who spoke to the AP.

Those who have attended previous dinners said they offered a rare and helpful opportunity for governors to connect with teh president and members of his Cabinet away from the pressure of daily governing, with some also saying the dinner was a chance to connect with fellow governors from other parties, whom they might not see very often or have opportunities to network and collaborate on a bipartisan level.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who briefly challenged Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, recalled being assigned one year to a table with then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, getting to know her and her family.

"It’s a glowing evening in the White House," Hutchinson, who once chaired the NGA, said in an interview with the AP.

NGA discusses affordability and political civility

The final day of the NGA conference on Saturday focused on affordability and political civility, with a conversation about immigration yielding a bipartisan agreement that both parties have failed over decades to address the issue.

Stitt said states should be empowered to issue workforce permits and warned that both parties are making false political assumptions.

"People think 'OK, all the Democrats want open borders,'" he said, "and 'all Republicans hate immigrants.'" But he noted that "rural Oklahoma Trump voters" have privately approached him and said they couldn't operate their businesses without people who were trying to obtain work authorization.

For all the turmoil surrounding the meeting this week, Moore nevertheless said the conference was a success.

"There were a lot of things that were put in our way to try to distract us from our mission, to try to divide us as individual governors, to try to make the mission of this organization where a bipartisan group of governors can come together and solve problems on behalf of our people, to try to make our work irrelevant," he said. "To all the people who tried to make that happen, you failed."

It comes as a bizarre image showing Donald Trump without his fake tan and iconic hairdo sparks online debate.