President Donald Trump returned to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night, three months after gunfire abruptly ended the original event, delivering an hourlong speech that opened with a solemn tribute to the victims and first responders before gradually giving way to familiar grievances, campaign-style riffs and renewed attacks on political rivals and the media.
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“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” Trump told the roughly 700 guests gathered under heightened security at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria, where the annual dinner was rescheduled after the April shooting. He praised the Secret Service officers and law enforcement personnel who responded that night, calling the attack “an assault on our democracy itself” and declaring that “we do not yield to political violence.”
Trump acknowledged he had abandoned the harsher speech he originally planned before the attack.
“I was so psyched, I was going to rip people,” he said, adding that “something changed.” Moments later, however, he promised the audience “we’ll do a little ripping if you don’t mind,” signaling a shift away from the night’s opening message of resilience.
From there, the speech frequently wandered between jokes, political attacks and extended tangents. Trump ribbed journalists about wearing bulky bulletproof vests, revisited complaints about media coverage, praised White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and joked about another presidential campaign despite the Constitution’s two-term limit.
One of the night’s longest detours centered on Trump’s planned White House ballroom. Standing inside the Waldorf ballroom, which he built when the property operated as the Trump International Hotel, the president touted bulletproof glass, future drone defenses, underground security upgrades and Czech crystal chandeliers before predicting future White House Correspondents’ dinners would someday be held in the new venue.
The speech later drifted through a wide range of subjects, including UFC events at the White House, an upcoming Washington auto race, Bruce Springsteen, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former President Joe Biden, CNN anchors Kaitlan Collins and Jake Tapper, Sen. Adam Schiff and Rosie O’Donnell, often blurring the line between correspondents’ dinner remarks and a campaign rally.
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Trump also congratulated New York Times reporter Tyler Pager, one of the journalists whose subpoena over reporting on the Qatari-donated Air Force One replacement was withdrawn by the Justice Department a day earlier, even as he renewed complaints about what he called “fake news” coverage. The president argued that speaking directly with reporters can improve stories, while insisting many outlets continue to treat him unfairly.
After one hour and four minutes, Trump closed out his speech by donning a “Trump 2028” red hat to continue to tease a possible third term.
The rescheduled dinner was smaller and more tightly controlled than April’s event, with a single entrance, multiple security screenings and no traditional red carpet. The association honored Secret Service agent Victor Gonzalez, who was shot in his protective vest while confronting the gunman, along with Washington Hilton employees who helped guests during the attack.
“We are back,” outgoing WHCA President Weijia Jiang told the audience. “We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word.”
By night’s end, the evening had come full circle. What began as a ceremony emphasizing resilience after political violence ultimately settled into the freewheeling, often meandering style that has become a hallmark of Trump’s public appearances, mixing condolences, boasts, policy asides and personal feuds into a single address.
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