{"id":16648,"date":"2026-07-25T09:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16648"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:47:51","slug":"donald-trump-delivers-rally-like-hour-of-rehash-in-white-house-correspondents-dinner-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16648","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump Delivers Rally-Like Hour Of Rehash In White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tSpeaking at the rescheduled White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner on Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" id=\"auto-tag_donald-trump\" data-tag=\"donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> delivered an hour-long speech blending shopworn rally material with a string of leaden one-liners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe was making his first appearance as president at the dinner, which had to be rescheduled last Aprtil after a shooter attempted to rush the ballroom and was subdued by the Secret Service. While presidents for decades have long used the event\u2019s keynote slot to zing reporters to varying degrees, Trump lapsed into rally mode, only deviating for some personal broadsides at members of the press, marbled with references to their appearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAfter one quip about an elderly U.S. senator\u2019s sex life drew crickets, Trump asked, \u201cDoes anybody get that? I thought that was actually great. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole frickin\u2019 stupid speech. It was the only good one, and that went down with not exactly great laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOver the rest of the meandering speech (watch the whole thing below), Trump seemed to recognize that many of his would-be jokes were not landing. There were few laughs or reactions at all beyond squirming or fidgeting as he veered in stream-of-consciousness fashion from topic to topic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cTonight\u2019s event is even crazier than the last time,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s so successful that I\u2019ve been informed by CBS News\u2019 David Ellison\u201d (Ellison is CEO of CBS parent Paramount) that \u201cnext year, they\u2019re going to call it the Trump White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner.\u201d Changing the name, he added, \u201cis the only way you\u2019re going to get me back here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe hour-long speech tested the patience of all but the fiercest Trump loyalists in attendance. The audience only sporadically showed a notable reaction, with long periods of near-silence prevailing. Once Trump\u2019s remarks concluded and mentalist Oz Pearlman took the stage, hundreds of guests streamed toward the exits.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"President Trump Delivers Remarks, Jul. 24, 2026\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2EFpaUNGFeE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tCompared with April\u2019s event at the Hilton, the ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria is much smaller. Trump cabinet members mingled with reporters in an aisle near one of Paramount\u2019s tables. Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim was at the dinner just a couple of hours after <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/07\/paramount-warner-bros-discovery-lawsuit-1237002761\/\">the decision to push back the company\u2019s planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> amid an antitrust challenge. Joining Delrahim were cabinet members Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy Jr., as well as presidential advisor Stephen Miller, Katie Miller and Kennedy\u2019s wife, actress Cheryl Hines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPrior to Trump\u2019s remarks, there were some awkward moments onstage as annual awards were given out, including to some journalists behind investigations of the president. As <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> reporters accepted an honor for their Jeffrey Epstein story, Trump shook their hands and then threw his hands up in the air and smiled a bit. Wolf Blitzer, who was presenting the award, noted that <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2025\/07\/trump-sues-rupert-murdoch-walll-street-journal-epstein-1236462626\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1236462626\">he sued the <em>WSJ <\/em>over the story for $20 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOnce at the lectern, Trump went after Josh Dawsey, one of the <em>WSJ <\/em>winners, and CNN host Kaitlyn Collins with highly personal digs, but the room fell nearly silent as the would-be laugh lines were delivered. Weijia Jiang, outgoing president of the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association, was stone-faced as Trump went into the would-be-roast-like digressions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tTrump had been scheduled to speak at the April dinner, but it was interrupted and then ended after a gunman breached a security barricade. The incident took place just outside the Washington Hilton ballroom, but shots could be heard among dinner guests. That sent the Secret Service scrambling to remove Trump and Vice President JD Vance from the dais, as well as other guests seated in the ballroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/c-span-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-1236875699\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1236875699\">Behind The Scenes As C-SPAN\u2019s Team Captured The Chaotic, Harrowing Night Of The White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tTrump urged the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association to reschedule, but the new arrangements were for a new venue at the Waldorf, formerly a Trump hotel, and with a new set of security measures in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBut just as in April, there has been attention on the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/whca\/\" id=\"auto-tag_whca\" data-tag=\"whca\">WHCA<\/a> and what would be said during the evening, not just by Trump but by other journalists. In addition to a flurry of lawsuits against media outlets and routine rants about the news media, Trump has threatened to pull network broadcast licenses and his Justice Department has subpoenaed reporters to try to obtain their sources. In the latter case, the DOJ this week <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/07\/justice-department-plans-to-withdraw-subpoenas-for-new-york-times-journalists-who-reported-on-trumps-new-air-force-one-1237001870\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1237001870\">withdrew subpoenas issued to <em>New York Times <\/em>reporters<\/a> who wrote pieces on the lack of security features on the new Air Force One. That followed a court hearing in which a federal judge criticized government attorneys for the way that the subpoenas were issued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe president skipped the WHCA dinners last year and during his first term, at times holding counter events. But he agreed to attend this year, putting him front and center at an event celebrating some of the journalists he has attacked. Among those receiving awards were reporters for The Wall Street Journal who reported on a bawdy letter with Trump\u2019s signature sent to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump denied he sent the letter, and sued the publication, along with its publisher and Rupert Murdoch. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<em>Dade Hayes contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking at the rescheduled White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner on Friday, Donald Trump delivered an hour-long speech blending shopworn rally material with a string of leaden one-liners. He was making his first appearance as president at the dinner, which had to be rescheduled last Aprtil after a shooter attempted to rush the ballroom and was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Donald-Trump-WHCD.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}