President Trump delivered an hour-long speech mixing third-term jokes, press mockery, and tributes to law enforcement at the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner on Friday (July 24, 2025), three months after an assassination attempt outside the original venue forced its postponement.
The April 25 dinner at the Washington Hilton was scrapped after a gunman opened fire outside the ballroom, prompting a Secret Service evacuation and striking Officer Victor Gonzales in his protective vest.
The rescheduled event relocated to the Waldorf Astoria — formerly Trump's own International Hotel — with roughly a third of the original attendance and tightened security that included airport-style magnetometer screenings. Trump opened by noting his familiarity with the building: "It's great to be back at a place that I know very well because I built it." He added: "But just like my presidency the second time is always better. It's always better. And the third time will be better yet. I'm only kidding."
The White House had promised a speech that was both "unifying yet vicious," and Trump delivered on both counts. He called the room "the largest group of Trump Derangement Syndrome people ever put together at one time," proposed a White House UFC card featuring "Sloppy Chris Christie" versus Jerry Nadler and AOC versus "a foreign policy question," and hurled insults at Jimmy Kimmel, "sick old woman" Rosie O'Donnell, and "pencil neck" Adam Schiff.
Trump also joked about running for an unconstitutional third term, at one point donning a "Trump 2028" hat, and revisited the chaos of the April shooting with a quip that when people yelled "Get down," rapper Nicki Minaj — who had attended the original dinner — "started twerking." He worked in a jab about the Oscars hemorrhaging ratings for being woke and a zinger about the evening's dinner and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
His most controversial moment came when he argued that CNN's Kaitlan Collins doesn't smile and compared her to trans actor Dylan Mulvaney, then called out her CNN colleague Jake Tapper. He also squeezed in a line about Bari Weiss and CBS News that NewsBusters noted would have had the room howling had a Democrat said it.
Outgoing WHCA President Weijia Jiang of CBS News struck a unity tone, declaring: "We are back. We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word." Jiang, whom the conservative media watchdog characterized as "level-headed and ego-free," took a candid stroll through her upbringing as a first-generation American in rural West Virginia where her parents ran a Chinese restaurant. She argued the First Amendment applies to "all Americans" and that the press is "not special," adding: "We cannot demand accountability without practicing it." Jiang also noted that Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend the WHCD in 1924.
New WHCA President Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News — whom Trump noted recently married Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — denounced political violence as "a sobering reminder that democracy is not immune to violence" and presented an award to Washington Hilton staff. The WHCA also honored Gonzales and law enforcement who served during the April attack. A video about the shooting voiced by CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil aired during the program.
The WHCA's annual awards, presented by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, went overwhelmingly to reporting critical of Trump. NewsBusters noted five of six were for coverage hammering the president: The Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey (Trump personnel), the Associated Press's Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller (Trump purging National Security Council staff), CNN's Kaitlan Collins (Trump vs. Zelenskyy), Getty Images (Trump appearing uninterested in a man who passed out), the Journal again (Trump and Jeffrey Epstein), and The New York Times's Tyler Pager (a slew of negative headlines).
Retired AP photojournalist Susan Walsh, receiving the Dunnigan Payne Award for Lifetime Achievement, closed with a veiled shot at the administration: "To all the journalists out there who are working incredibly hard to report the truth, despite access issues, insults, and subpoenas. Keep it up. Your work matters and we need you now more than ever."
A surreal interlude featured an AI-generated James Madison taking a shot at Trump, reminding attendees that "the government doesn't get to shut the press up, not when it's wrong, not when it's annoying and not when it's asking uncomfortable questions." NewsBusters dismissed the bit as "stunning and brave." A separate video package spotlighting current and former White House reporters featured Dan Rather questioning Richard Nixon, Sam Donaldson going after Ronald Reagan, and Helen Thomas grilling George W. Bush — all Republicans — before tossing in Major Garrett versus Obama on a hostage deal.
Trump cited the Media Research Center's work on negative coverage of his presidency across ABC, CBS, and NBC while praising Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for navigating what he called a difficult press corps.
When I'm gone, you're all going to be broke.
Trump's sharpest warning to the press came near the end. "You people have no idea how lucky you are," he said. "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 gonna be broke. There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else."
He claimed to believe in the free press "more than anyone in this room does" and called himself "the most open and transparent President in history," before closing on a note that was part concession, part compliment: "Sometimes I don't feel you treat me fair, or maybe you do. I don't know. I don't feel that, but sometimes you treat me very fairly, and I have a lot of respect for your profession."
Mentalist Oz Pearlman closed the nearly five-hour evening with a performance that included guessing audience members' dream vacation destinations — among them Fox's David Spunt and Reuters's Steve Holland — and an exchange with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.