Pat Kenny

His behavior on this occasion was markedly different.

I mean, what happened when you look at the various videos that are now available, you see that the Secret Service rushed J.D.

Vance off the stage first, while Trump remained immobile pretty much sitting at the dinner table.

It was quite extraordinary.

As I say, he sits there immobile, not seemingly aware of what was going on.

And just before the whole incident unfolded, they had this mentalist performing and he was doing a close-up magic with Trump's party at the table.

And there were kind of oohs and ahhs from others at the table at what he had done, like this close-up magic.

Trump looks at him in blind indifference is the only way to describe it, as if he wasn't really sure what was going on.

Now, what do you think the impact of this will be?

I mean, the pre-election impact of the Butler incident was probably to boost his numbers in the polls.

Those numbers are currently flagging in the United States, even among Republicans.

I think he's at a record low for Republican support for a Republican president.

Independents are not impressed by him, and certainly the Democrats are utterly anti-Trump.

But do you think this will offer a boost to his poll numbers?

You've been in and out of the White House so many times.

The question of deflection and diversion, I mean, when you ask an awkward question, you're put down and immediately animated as either fake news or a left-wing hack or whatever it might be.

And the same goes for anyone who…

on any kind of robust questioning, either of Trump himself or any of his acolytes, whether it's Pete Hegseth, who can be quite belligerent with members of the press, and certainly Caroline Levitt.

For such a young woman, she has assembled quite an arsenal of put-downs.

The art of deflection has really been, I suppose, raised to a high degree of proficiency by this White House.