President Trump’s “humor” has mostly consisted of his saying outrageous or nasty things — for example, claiming multiple times that he could end the Ukraine war in one day; asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails; calling on police not to be “too nice” when arresting suspects; and commenting that President Barack Obama founded ISIS — only to insist afterward that he was “just joking.”

One humorist observed of Trump’s jokes, “there’s a violence to them, an anger to them that’s unseemly.”

But during Beijing’s recent summit of autocratic nations, Trump surprised observers by asking Chinese leader Xi Jinping on social media to “please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.” The post had just the right blend of understated truth and irony, qualities that define the best presidential humor.

Consider President John F. Kennedy’s famous

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