President Donald Trump attended the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Friday, July 24, 2026, at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, according to NPR. The event was a smaller-scale redo of the April 26 black-tie affair, which had been postponed after a gunman tried to rush into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel, as reported by CNN.
President Donald Trump Attends Rescheduled Correspondents’ Dinner at Waldorf Astoria
The restaged dinner was down-scaled to accommodate approximately 700 guests, a significant drop from the 2,600 attendees at the original April event, according to The Guardian. The venue itself, the Waldorf Astoria, is a building that Donald Trump once operated as his namesake DC hotel, serving as an unofficial clubhouse during his first administration.
A Rambling Speech and Insults
After sitting through more than an hour of awards presentations—many of which honored journalists reporting critically on his administration, including New York Times reporter Tyler Pager, who had been subpoenaed by Trump’s Justice Department over reporting about a Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet, according to The Times of Israel—President Trump delivered a rambling, hour-long speech.
He praised some journalists while directing vague potshots and insults at others, including Jane Fonda, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Hussein Obama, late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, Rep. Ilhan Omar, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California, whom he mocked. Trump assured the crowd that he had scrapped the most biting parts of his remarks, stating, That was going to be a doozy.
Addressing Political Violence and Freedom of Speech
During his remarks, Trump struck notes of unity by praising the Secret Service and denouncing political violence, referencing the attempted mass murder that threatened the original April event.
Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve, and every one of us here this evening to show that in America we do not yield to political violence,
Trump said, according to The Guardian. So in this country, we believe in freedom of speech. We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate.
Outgoing White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News welcomed the crowd earlier in the evening, stating, Tonight our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word.
Quips About a Third Presidential Term
Toward the end of his speech, Trump quipped about the possibility of serving a third presidential term—something barred by the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment—stating, Just like my presidency, the second time is always better. And the third time will be better yet.
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