President Donald Trump returned to the stage of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s rescheduled dinner on Friday night, delivering a tirade that praised some reporters, took potshots at others, joked about public weight and intelligence, and poked fun at the president’s third term.
He assured a crowd of reporters, however, that he had deleted the most sarcastic parts of his remarks.
“That would be ironic,” Trump said of a speech he had planned to give in April, before a gunman interrupted the first dinner and forced it to be postponed.
“As I said three months ago, the program must continue,” said the president at the beginning of his speech, praising the decision to postpone the dinner. He talked about the “attempted mass murder” that may have happened that night in April, but then moved more into jokes – and insults.
Trump’s return to the writers’ dinner — and his promise to return next year — was a pivotal moment in his relationship with the media, which he has attacked, sued and taken executive action since taking office early last year. Among the audience were journalists who he approved and shut himself away from the events.
Trump’s sometimes off-color speech, which lasted more than an hour, was full of vague comments directed at people he doesn’t like – from actress Jane Fonda to rock singer Bruce Springsteen to “Barack Hussein Obama.”
President Donald Trump attends the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, Friday, July 24, 2026, in Washington, along with WHCA president Weijia Jiang, right, and White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt.
AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
Among the targets of Trump’s straight jokes: Late night talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; California Gov. Gavin Newsom; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; and Trump’s own speechwriters, whose jokes he sometimes criticized and even silenced. Some of the comments are racist.
The president also spent time expressing his pride in the ballpark at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel. “It’s nice to go back to a place I know well because I lived there,” said Trump.
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Trump also referred to the journalism awards that were handed out this evening, most of them for stories that challenge him and his administration. “Do I have a say in those awards?” He asked with great irritation.
He spoke briefly about the war in Iran and a few words about the ballroom he is building at the White House. He also used the opportunity to joke about the possibility of a third term – something barred by the 22nd amendment to the US Constitution.
“Like my presidency, second is always better,” the president said. “And the third time will be better.”
He added: “I’m just kidding.” Then, finally, he put on a red “Trump 2028” cap and brought the “stupid” who was still running again.
It was a very different dinner than last time
Earlier, Trump had entered the ballroom to a standing ovation, and was grateful for the support of outgoing White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News. After dinner, he stayed for over an hour to present the awards.
One of the winners, Tyler Pager of the New York Times, was actually one of the reporters subpoenaed by the Trump Justice Department over his reporting on Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One. Those appeals were withdrawn on Thursday in a New York court – one of the forums where the president, in his second term, wants to control the media coverage he does not like.
The rescheduled dinner was held in a smaller venue this time seating only about 700 people. Security was very tight. Visitors entered through a single entrance, past two IDs and past a sight dog, armed police and security guards. There was no red carpet and no separate pre-dinner drinks receptions.
“Let’s try this again,” Jiang said with a laugh, welcoming the crowd. The White House press, he noted, “always has a following.” Flustered, he flashed back to the trauma and confusion of the first dinner in April.
“Tonight our message is: We are back,” he said. “We will not be afraid. We refuse to let the act of violence have the last word.”
At the beginning of his speech, Trump indicated that he had decided to put it down. But he saved some zingers. Like this one, to a heavy media audience: “This is truly the largest group of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ people ever assembled at one time.”
People received bravery awards during the April shooting
Aside from the elimination method, there was one change at Friday’s dinner: two more awards. One was delivered to Victor Gonzales, a Secret Service agent who was working at a security checkpoint in April and was hit by his protective vest.
Gonzales “took a risk and got involved with an armed suspect,” Jiang said. “He stayed in the fight and the attacker was stopped.”
The second prize was awarded to the staff of the Washington Hilton Hotel, the venue of the first dinner, who were honored for their professionalism under pressure.
The dress code this time was looser “black tie optional,” and dinner included grilled peach salad with burrata, lobster and beef Wellington. In the evening, as at the last supper, the entertainment of the psychologist Oz Pearlman was shown – this time he got the chance to do his act.
Jiang and his fellow board members worked hard to deliver this WHCA 2.0 dinner, not wanting to let an act of violence — or the image of his colleagues hiding under the tables — remain an afterthought. Announcing the reorganization, he emphasized the dinner’s stated purpose: “A celebration of free journalism and the vital role journalism has played in our democracy for more than a century.”
There is still a lot of criticism of the event
But it is also clear that some people felt that dinner should not be postponed at all.
Many never thought it was a good look in the first place, when they saw journalists wearing formal clothes that matched their sources, or the things they were reporting on.
“It undermines the public’s faith in the way the media does its job, and it makes it look like we’re friends with the people we’re covering,” said Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, as the talks continued.
This new dinner came at a time of tension between the media and the president who has tried to put pressure on the media he is not happy with in different ways. That pressure ranges from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions by the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits. That tension has increased since April.
Trump, however, ended up trying to mend fences — to a point. “I have a lot of respect for your work,” he told the gathered journalists after an hour of speaking. He also expressed his success, saying: “If I’m not there, you will all be broken.”
And he concluded that night: “I didn’t know what to expect. It’s worse than I thought at first.”
