<\/p>\n
\n\tPresident Donald Trump attended his first-ever White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner, with this 12 months\u2019s rescheduled gala held Friday evening in Washington, D.C., and delivered some pointed remarks to the assembled journalists in a rambling speech that stretched on for just over an hour \u2014 and through which he insulted several journalists, politicians and celebs that he\u2019s sparred with.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI’m delighted to be here on the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. Amazing people, a whole lot of those who I like,\u201d Trump said. \u201cSome I don\u2019t like in any respect, but I respect most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAt first, Trump seemed unsure of the tone he desired to impart, and suggested that \u2014 compared with barbs he was planning to deliver at the unique WHCA dinner, which was disrupted by a gun-wielding attacker \u2014 he was pulling his punches. \u201cI said, \u2018What will we do here? Is that this presupposed to be fun? Am I presupposed to be serious? Am I presupposed to be a comedian?\u2019 So I suppose you said, perhaps a little bit little bit of all the things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut Trump quickly began bashing the press. \u201cThis evening it\u2019s really all concerning the fake news media and your handling of prizes \u2014 writing and producing and performing made-up stories just like the Academy Awards,\u201d Trump said. The Academy Awards \u201cwas once the the epitome of rankings outside of the Super Bowl\u2026 Now it\u2019s down within the dumps. No person wants to observe it anymore because they took on Trump. They hit me all night long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe told the journalists, \u201conce I\u2019m gone. You\u2019re all going to be broke. Your online business model goes to be finished. No, it\u2019s true. After I\u2019m not around, you\u2019re going to be broke. There\u2019s not going to be anybody to report on. No person gives a rattling about anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump said that \u201cmostly, I\u2019ve given up on you and the media, in order that now I just gave up on you, and I\u2019m primary on TikTok. Did you see that?\u2026 I gave up on you, people. I gave up on traditional press, and it obviously worked because we did win in a landline\u201d (he meant \u201clandslide,\u201d but that is just not true). Trump boasted that \u201cI used to be in a position to get [TikTok] sold to a gaggle of very wealthy people, mostly Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump said he didn’t attend past WHCA dinners because \u201cI assumed the press treated me very, very unfairly, and I don\u2019t know. I feel I made the fitting decision because they should go where perhaps you\u2019re not wanted, but they did want me. They wanted me for rankings, and so they wanted me for other reasons, but not for love. And I said, \u2018You already know, I\u2019m not going to go.\u2019 First time that ever happened\u2026 And I didn\u2019t go for 4 years because I got treated terribly by the press.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis 12 months, Trump noted, the WHCA decided to not have a comedian. \u201cThey considered using Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThese guys \u2014 they\u2019re terrible. They\u2019re terrible. Stephen Colbert. These are people without talent\u2026 They don’t have any talent, but they should not comedians. They\u2019re not funny people. They\u2019re indignant people. They\u2019re sick people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump took the rostrum at 9:33 p.m. and held forth for about 64 minutes.<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump joked that Paramount CEO David Ellison, whose company owns CBS News (\u201cHe bought it, spent a whole lot of money, and he\u2019s going to make, I feel, unbelievable changes and keep a few of the great stuff going\u201d), told him that next 12 months Ellison will rename the WHCA dinner \u201cthe Trump White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner.\u201d \u201cHe told me that, and I like that very much. We\u2019re going to alter the name of it, OK?\u201d Trump said, alluding to his unsuccessful effort so as to add his name to the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe also said at one other point in his talk, \u201cI, for one, wish Bari Weiss all the very best at CBS News. She\u2019s an exquisite woman,\u201d which drew an audible murmur from the audience.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt \u201ccould have one in every of the toughest jobs within the White House\u201d because she has to \u201ctake care of all of you on a regular basis, and you may be very difficult. You’ll be able to be very, very difficult people. But I\u2019m probably being a little bit bit oversensitive. Sometimes I actually do think that a few of you don\u2019t like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe quipped, \u201cThis place is the really the most important group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time, I think,\u201d eliciting a smattering of laughter. (The president apparently believes that Trump derangement syndrome is an actual medical condition.)<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump slammed a few of his favorite perceived enemies. He said the winner of the bottom rankings and the \u201clowest IQ on television\u201d was \u201cactually Don Lemon,\u201d whom Trump called \u201cthe dumbest man on television. I said, , whenever you say some things, you never make a comeback. It\u2019s not like, \u2018Oh gee, hey Don, let\u2019s have dinner some night.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump also took aim at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who won the 2026 WHCA award for broadcast for her coverage of Trump\u2019s confrontation within the Oval Office showdown with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2025. Trump said, \u201cI need to personally congratulate CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award\u201d but said it \u201cwas all about me. It\u2019s a fake. She shouldn\u2019t get the award. It was a fake, but I didn\u2019t mind.\u201d (In a press release issued as Trump was still speaking, Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said: \u201cWe stand by our journalists and the integrity and fair mindedness with which the CNN team reports the news. Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting to the general public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Structure. CNN will proceed to exercise this right.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump then went on a weird tangent about Collins, calling her \u201ca young, lively woman\u201d but that \u201cshe never smiles. I said, \u2018Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile. You’ve a pleasant position. You\u2019re at CNN fake news. You need to be a glad person. Just smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.’\u201d Then Trump tried to joke that Collins had signed \u201ca serious recent sponsorship. But then I informed her that it wasn\u2019t her on the Bud Light can. It was Dylan Mulvaney,\u201d Trump said, referring to transgender influencer who was enlisted by the beer company in 2023, a campaign that suffered an enormous backlash. \u201cDylan Mulvaney cost Bud like $35 million in market cap. It was the worst industrial ever made, by the way in which. For those few those who wish to hear that, most individuals don\u2019t care, but I might. I wouldn\u2019t wish to hire Dylan anytime soon,\u201d said Trump.<\/p>\n
\n\tAbout one other CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, Trump said: \u201cI like Anderson usually because he\u2019s covered me well for a few years, and he went bad as soon as I went for politics. But for years, he loved interviews. I did so many interviews with him, and he was great. But , he\u2019s got a little bit different persuasion than me, in some ways actually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump also lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, Rosie O\u2019Donnell (a \u201csick older woman\u201d), CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper and Bruce Springsteen. About Springsteen, Trump said: \u201cWhat the hell happened to that guy? He looks like hell\u2026 I\u2019m sure he doesn\u2019t like the way in which I look, but I don\u2019t look so bad.\u201d He complained that Springsteen made \u201c4 political speeches in his three-hour show,\u201d leading Trump to joke, \u201cThe tour has been renamed \u2018Bored within the USA,\u2019 and his recent song was so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump, after all, has had a hostile relationship with the press. He not only routinely complains that news outlets are \u201cfake news\u201d and insults individual journalists but he has also sued multiple news outlets over coverage he dislikes, including the Recent York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News and CBS News\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the WHCA dinner, the Wall Street Journal reporters behind the paper\u2019s story a few birthday letter purportedly written by Trump to Jeffrey Epstein won the $10,000 Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability award. Trump, who has denied he penned the Epstein letter, filed a lawsuit over the story, demanding $20 billion in damages. The Journal\u2019s lawyers called Trump\u2019s lawsuit \u201can affront to the First Amendment.\u201d A judge dismissed his original suit but Trump refiled the grievance<\/a> in May 2026 and the case is pending. On the dinner, Trump awkwardly shook the hands of the Journal reporters who were there to receive the prize, then threw up his hands in mock resignation and returned to his seat.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis has not been a simple evening. All these awards\u2026 Do I get a say in those awards?\u201d Trump joked during his remarks.<\/p>\n \n\tNear the tip of his long speech, Trump joked that he would run for a fourth term \u2014 and he donned a \u201cTrump 2028\u201d hat \u2014 repeating his baseless claim that he actually won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. (He didn’t.) Trump said he plans to return to the correspondents\u2019 dinner in 2027.<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, Trump also made a joke on the expense of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his secretary of Health and Human Services. \u201cBobby Kennedy\u2019s right here. He personally ran over the cow in his automotive\u2026 He brought it here so that you can eat tonight,\u201d Trump said. \u201cSo it\u2019s very fresh. And Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill. But we drew the road at that, Cheryl. We said, no, we\u2019re not going to do this. We\u2019re not doing that. We love Bobby.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFriday\u2019s WHCA dinner took place on the Waldorf Astoria hotel in D.C. It featured a performance by mentalist Oz Pearlman, whereas the association has traditionally invited a comedian to roast the sitting president.<\/p>\n \n\tThe WHCA dinner was rescheduled after the primary gathering, on April 25, was interrupted by an evident assassination attempt on Trump. The gunman who crashed through security on the Washington Hilton was apprehended and charged. Trump frolicked discussing the April attack in his remarks, thanking the law enforcement personnel who subdued the suspect. <\/p>\n \n\tOutgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, delivered opening remarks at the beginning of the event. She then alternated hosting duties with Fox News\u2019 Jacqui Heinrich, who will serve because the organization\u2019s president for the 2026-27 term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump attended his first-ever White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner, with this 12 months\u2019s rescheduled gala held Friday evening in Washington, D.C., and delivered some pointed remarks to the assembled journalists in a rambling speech that stretched on for just over an hour \u2014 and through which he insulted several journalists, politicians and celebs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20669],"tags":[54237,1166,6537,2038,4434,13505,446,1313],"class_list":["post-371776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","tag-derangement","tag-group","tag-largest","tag-people","tag-put","tag-syndrome","tag-time","tag-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t