President Trump addressed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night, the event’s first full gathering since an armed suspect disrupted the previous dinner months earlier, opening his remarks by praising Secret Service and law enforcement personnel for their response that night.
He reflected on his time as president and working with the press as he lobbed insults at his political opponents and roasted some journalists.
The speech, which lasted over an hour and was received with stunned silence or nervous laughter by some attendees, concluded with the president wearing a red cap with “Trump 2028” letters, joking that he was preparing to run for a fourth term, which the Constitution prohibits.
The dinner was held at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria, where about 700 attendees were present, a stark contrast to the April 25 event that drew nearly 3,000 guests at the Washington Hilton, where the gala will return next year.
Recalling the shooting at the Hilton, Mr. Trump singled out Secret Service Officer Victor Gonzalez for helping stop the attacker, whom the president described as a “deranged loser with a gun,” at a security checkpoint.
“Victor did not even want to go to the hospital for a checkup,” Mr. Trump said. “We salute you, and we thank you with all our hearts. Thank you very much.”
He then said, “We settle our differences not with bullets,” but “with open and vigorous debate.”
The president said near the start of his speech, “As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” noting how he had planned for a presentation that “was going to be a doozy” and how he was “psyched” to deliver it, saying, “I was going to rip people, and I don’t know, just something changed.”
Mr. Trump did, however, promise to engage in some slaps at Friday night’s gathering, including taking swipes at Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York.
“It’s traditional that at least one or two potential presidential hopefuls attend the correspondents’ dinner. But many of them seem to have really chickened out,” Mr. Trump said. “I was disappointed that Gavin Newscum didn’t show up. He didn’t show up. He should be here.”
The president also ripped Ms. Omar as “a low-IQ person, and she’s also a very dishonest person and should get the hell out of our country. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be in our country.
“She also calls her brother husband number one. Omar is reportedly being investigated for fraud. She revised her net worth. I was shocked to see that she was worth much more than $30 million.
“And then when the press got on her, she revised it slightly downward to less than 18,000. So she went from much more than 30 million to 18,000.”
Mr. Trump also blasted Wall Street Journal and CNN reporters, whose reporting he’s at odds with, and who were presented with WHCA awards earlier in the evening.
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It’s a fake. She shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake,” he said. “But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ … But she’s a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you have a smile? Smile.’”
Mr. Trump reiterated that his decision to run for president in 2016 had nothing to do with former President Barack Obama’s roasting of him at the correspondents’ dinner in 2011.
“They keep playing it because they think that was the evening I decided to run for president,” he said. “It was not. In fact, I loved the evening. I looked at my wife, I said, ‘Can you believe it? All these people, that’s all they’re doing is talking about me. I love this dinner.’
“It had nothing to do with it. I just decided that I wanted to make America great again. This had nothing to do with that dinner.”
Mr. Trump said he skipped the dinners during his first four years in office because he felt the press treated him unfairly. He also avoided the 2025 event, but he promised he would return to next year’s gala unless the press gets “really nasty.”
Mr. Trump also discussed the construction project beneath the White House and the ballroom he said the administration is building on an accelerated timeline.
He closed by thanking attendees, saying he “made a lot of friends” at the event “and probably made some enemies also.”
