President Donald Trump attended his first-ever White House Correspondents Association Dinner, with this year’s 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 — and personally insulted several journalists, politicians and celebs that he’s sparred with.
“I am delighted to be here at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Amazing people, a lot of people that I like,” Trump said. “Some I don’t like at all, but I respect most of them.”
At first Trump seemed unsure of the tone he wanted to impart, and suggested that — compared with barbs he was planning to deliver at the original WHCA dinner, which was disrupted by a gun-wielding attacker — he was pulling his punches. “I said, ‘What do we do here? Is this supposed to be fun? Am I supposed to be serious? Am I supposed to be a comedian?’ So I guess you said, maybe a little bit of everything.”
But Trump quickly started bashing the press. “This evening it’s really all about the fake news media and your handling of prizes — writing and producing and performing made-up stories like the Academy Awards,” Trump said. The Academy Awards “used to be the the epitome of ratings outside of the Super Bowl… Now it’s down in the dumps. Nobody wants to watch it anymore because they took on Trump. They hit me all night long.”
He told the journalists, “when I’m gone. You’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished. No, it’s true. When I’m not around, you’re going to be broke. There’s not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.”
Trump said “mostly, I’ve given up on you and the media, so that now I just gave up on you, and I’m number one on TikTok. Did you see that?… I gave up on you, people. I gave up on traditional press, and it obviously worked because we did win in a landline” (by which he meant “landslide,” which is not true). Trump boasted that “I was able to get [TikTok] sold to a group of very wealthy people, mostly Americans.”
Trump said he did not attend past WHCA dinners because “I thought the press treated me very, very unfairly, and I don’t know. I think I made the right decision because they need to go where maybe you’re not wanted, but they did want me. They wanted me for ratings, and they wanted me for other reasons, but not for love. And I said, ‘You know, I’m not going to go.’ First time that ever happened… And I didn’t go for four years because I got treated terribly by the press.”
This year, Trump noted, the WHCA decided not to have a comedian. “They considered using Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon,” Trump said. “These guys — they’re terrible. They’re terrible. Stephen Colbert. These are people without talent… They have no talent, but they are not comedians. They’re not funny people. They’re angry people. They’re sick people.”
Trump held forth for about 64 minutes after he took the podium at 9:33 p.m.
Trump joked that Paramount CEO David Ellison, who is the owner of CBS News (“He bought it, spent a lot of money, and he’s going to make, I think, fantastic changes and keep some of the great stuff going”) next year will rename the WHCA dinner “the Trump White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” “He told me that, and I like that very much. We’re going to change the name of it, OK?” Trump said, alluding to his unsuccessful effort to add his name to the Kennedy Center.
He also said at another point in his talk, “I, for one, wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News. She’s a wonderful woman,” which drew an audible murmur from the audience.
He said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt “may have one of the hardest jobs in the White House” because she has to “deal with all of you all the time, and you can be very difficult. You can be very, very difficult people. But I’m probably being a little bit oversensitive. Sometimes I really do think that some of you don’t like me.”
He quipped, “This place is the really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time, I suspect,” eliciting a smattering of laughter.
Trump slammed some of his favorite perceived enemies. He said the winner of the lowest ratings and the “lowest IQ on television” was “actually Don Lemon,” who Trump called “the dumbest man on television. I said, you know, when you say some things, you never make a comeback. It’s not like, ‘Oh gee, hey Don, let’s have dinner some night.’”
Trump also took aim at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. He said, “I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award” but said it “was all about me. It’s a fake. She shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake, but I didn’t mind.” (In a statement issued as Trump was still speaking, Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said: “We 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 public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution. CNN will continue to exercise this right.”)
Trump then went on a weird tangent about Collins, calling her “a young, active woman” but that “she never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. Just smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.’” Then Trump tried to joke that Collins had signed “a major new sponsorship. But then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can. It was Dylan Mulvaney,” Trump said, referring to transgender influencer who was enlisted by the beer company in 2023, a campaign that suffered a huge backlash. “Dylan Mulvaney cost Bud like $35 million in market cap. It was the worst commercial ever made, by the way. For those few people that want to hear that, most people don’t care, but I would. I wouldn’t want to hire Dylan anytime soon,” said Trump.
About another CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, Trump said: “I like Anderson actually because he’s covered me well for many 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 you know, he’s got a little different persuasion than me, in many ways actually.”
Trump also lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, Rosie O’Donnell (a “sick older woman”), CNN’s Jake Tapper and Bruce Springsteen. About Springsteen, Trump said: “What the hell happened to that guy? He looks like hell… I’m sure he doesn’t like the way I look, but I don’t look so bad.” He complained that Springsteen made “four political speeches in his three-hour show,” leading Trump to joke, “The tour has been renamed ‘Bored in the USA,’ and his new song was so bad.”
Trump, of course, has had a hostile relationship with the press. He not only routinely complains that news outlets are “fake news” and insults individual journalists but he has also sued multiple news outlets over coverage he dislikes, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News and CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
At the WHCA dinner, the Wall Street Journal reporters behind the paper’s story about a 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. A judge dismissed his original suit but Trump refiled the complaint in May 2026 and the matter is pending. The Journal’s lawyers called Trump’s lawsuit “an affront to the First Amendment.” At 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.
“This has not been an easy evening. All these awards… Do I get a say in those awards?” Trump joked during his remarks.
Near the end of his remarks, Trump joked that he would run for a fourth term — and he donned a “Trump 2028” hat — repeating his baseless claim that he actually won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. (He did not.) Trump said he plans to return to the correspondents’ dinner in 2027.
Meanwhile, Trump also made a joke at the expense of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his secretary of Health and Human Services. “Bobby Kennedy’s right here. He personally ran over the cow in his car… he brought it here for you to eat tonight,” Trump said. “So it’s very fresh. And Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill. But we drew the line at that, Cheryl. We said, no, we’re not going to do that. We’re not doing that. We love Bobby.”
Friday’s WHCA dinner took place at 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.
The WHCA dinner was rescheduled after the first gathering, on April 25, was interrupted by an evident assassination attempt on Trump. The gunman who crashed through security at the Washington Hilton was apprehended and charged. Trump spent time discussing the April attack in his remarks, thanking the law enforcement personnel who subdued the suspect.
Outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, delivered opening remarks at the start of the event. She then shared hosting duties with Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, who will serve as the organization’s president for the 2026-27 term.
