President Donald Trump took the stage at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night, where he gave a speech that mixed praise for some journalists with jabs at others. He also made jokes about the weight and intellect of public figures and hinted at a third presidential term.
Trump informed the audience that he had removed the harshest parts of his speech.
“That was going to be a doozy,” Trump remarked about the speech he had intended to deliver in April before a gunman disrupted the original event, leading to its postponement.
“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” he stated as he opened his speech, applauding the decision to reschedule the dinner. Trump mentioned “the attempted mass murder” that could have occurred that night in April but shifted mainly to humor and jabs.
Trump’s return to the correspondents’ dinner—and his pledge to attend next year—marked a significant point in his interactions with the media, with whom he has had a contentious relationship since beginning his second term early last year. The audience included reporters who had been sanctioned and excluded from events.
During his over an hour-long speech, Trump made off-color comments and took aim at people he dislikes, including actress Jane Fonda, rock legend Bruce Springsteen, and “Barack Hussein Obama.”
Other targets of Trump’s humor included late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and even his own speechwriters, whose jokes he sometimes critiqued while delivering them. Some comments bordered on racist.
The president also spent time expressing pride in the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, previously the Trump International Hotel. “It’s great to be back at a place that I know very well because I built it,” Trump said.
Trump also referenced the journalism awards given earlier in the evening, many of which challenged him and his administration. “Do I have a say in those awards?” he asked with a grimace.
He briefly mentioned the Iran war and spoke about the ballroom he is constructing at the White House. He also joked about potentially serving a third term, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment.
“Just like my presidency, the second time is always better,” Trump quipped. “And the third time will be better yet.”
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He added: “I’m only kidding.” Then, at the end, he donned a red cap that said “Trump 2028” and delivered the “scoop” that he was running again.
It Was A Very Different Dinner Than The Previous One
Earlier, Trump had entered the ballroom to polite applause and was thanked for his support by outgoing White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News. After dinner, he then sat through more than an hour of awards presentations.
One of the winners, Tyler Pager of the New York Times, was one of the reporters who had been subpoenaed by Trump’s Justice Department over his reporting about Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. Those subpoenas were withdrawn on Thursday in a New York courtroom—just one of the arenas where the president, in his second term, has been seeking to control media coverage that displeases him.
The rescheduled dinner was held at a smaller venue this time, accommodating about 700 people. Security was significantly tighter. Guests entered through a single entrance, passing two ID checks, a detection dog, armed officers, and security guards. There was no red carpet and no separate cocktail receptions before the dinner.
“Let’s try this again,” Jiang quipped, welcoming the crowd. The White House press corps, she noted, “always have a follow-up.” Turning serious, she referred back to the trauma and confusion of the original dinner in April.
“Tonight our message is this: We are back,” she said. “We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word.”
Early in his speech, Trump indicated that he had decided to tone it down. But he kept some zingers, like this one, to the media-heavy audience: “This is really the largest group of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ people put together at one time.”
People Received Awards For Bravery During April Shooting
Besides the pared-down approach, there was another change at Friday’s dinner: two additional awards. One was presented to Victor Gonzales, the Secret Service agent who was staffing a security checkpoint in April and was struck in his protective vest.
Gonzales “placed himself directly in harm’s way and engaged the armed suspect,” Jiang said. “He stayed in the fight and the attacker was stopped.”
A second award was presented to the staff of the Washington Hilton hotel, site of the first dinner, who were hailed for their professionalism under pressure.
The dress code this time was a looser “black tie optional,” and dinner included grilled peach and burrata salad, lobster and beef Wellington. The evening, as at the last dinner, featured entertainment by mentalist Oz Pearlman—who this time got the chance to perform his act.
Jiang and her fellow board members had worked hard to bring about this WHCA dinner 2.0, not wanting to let a violent act—or the image of colleagues hiding under tables—remain the final thought. Announcing the rescheduling, she emphasized the dinner’s stated purpose: “A celebration of a free press and the vital role of journalism in our democracy for over a century.”
There’s Still Lots Of Criticism Of The Event
But it’s also clear that some people felt the dinner should not be rescheduled at all.
Many never thought it was much of a good look in the first place, with the sight of journalists in formal wear cozying up to their sources, or the objects of their reporting.
“It undermines the public faith in how the press does its work, and it makes it look like we are pals with the people we cover,” Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said when the deliberations were taking place.
The new dinner came during a time of fast-increasing tension between the media and a president who, in his second term, has tried to exert pressure on media outlets he is unhappy with in various ways. That pressure has ranged from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits. Those tensions have only escalated since April.
Trump, though, ended with an attempt to mend fences—to a point. “I have a lot of respect for your profession,” he told the assembled journalists after an hour of speaking. He also touted his own success, declaring: “When I’m not around, you’re all gonna be broke.”
And he concluded about the evening: “I didn’t know what to expect. It’s far worse than I originally thought.”
Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.
