{"id":17125,"date":"2026-07-25T21:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17125"},"modified":"2026-07-25T21:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:05:33","slug":"donald-trump-holds-the-white-house-press-corps-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17125","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump Holds The White House Press Corps Hostage"},"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=\"paywall\">The room was silent for much of the speech. Even the White House efforts to stuff the venue with cabinet members and West Wing aides didn\u2019t save Donald Trump from bombing. After he stumbled through the Christie cake riff, the camera cut to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who sat stone-faced. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had promised the speech would be \u201cunifying\u201d and \u201cvicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">At moments, it was one of those things. Trump attacked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/chuck-schumer\" class=\"text link\">Chuck Schumer<\/a>, using \u201cPalestinian\u201d as a slur to mock the New York senator. He fixated on CNN anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/kaitlan-collins-cnn-donald-trump\" class=\"text link\">Kaitlan Collins<\/a>\u2019 looks, instructing her to smile more before delivering a clumsy joke comparing her to trans influencer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/dylan-mulvaney-is-finally-a-broadway-leading-lady-haters-be-damned\" class=\"text link\">Dylan Mulvaney<\/a>. He said Ilhan Omar should \u201cget out of our country.\u201d The ballroom remained mostly totally silent. When the camera cut to the room, attendees sat stone-faced or looked at their phones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Trump seemed aware he was bombing. He repeatedly asked the silent crowd who had written his speech. After delivering an incomprehensible joke about a senator having sex with his wife, Trump tried to explain the punchline before asking the audience: \u201cDoes anybody get that? I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole freaking stupid speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">It may be unfair to blame the speechwriters, a team led by Ross Worthington that back in April had input from roast comic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/meet-tony-hinchliffe-the-comic-whose-racist-jokes-rocked-trump-msg-rally\" class=\"text link\">Tony Hinchcliffe<\/a>. On Friday night, Trump\u2019s delivery often appeared to be the problem. He sometimes stopped in the middle of pre-written jokes to riff about his perceived enemies, so much so that by the time he delivered the punchline it was unclear what the setup was. That kind of extemporaneous grievance-association may thrill the MAGA hat-wearing denizens of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/trump-rally\" class=\"text link\">Trump rally<\/a>, but in a room full of journalists it fell uncomfortably flat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">***<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The WHCA has drawn criticism for hosting Trump at the dinner. Days before, a group of 500 journalists, including Ann Curry and Jim Acosta, signed an open letter calling on the WHCA to \u201cforcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump\u2019s efforts to trample freedom of the press.\u201d CBS News Senior White House Correspondent and WHCA president Weijia Jiang, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/interview\/white-house-correspondents-association-president-weijia-jiang-on-the-whcas-2026-dinner\/677714\" class=\"text link\">interview with C-SPAN<\/a>, called the letter \u201cdisappointing\u201d and said it was \u201cbased on the premise that we weren\u2019t going to say anything about the current environment, and that\u2019s a false premise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">There were thinly veiled efforts throughout the night to impress upon Trump the importance of the press. There was this pointed remark: \u201cThe government doesn\u2019t get to shut the press up, not when it\u2019s wrong, not when it\u2019s annoying, and not when it\u2019s asking uncomfortable questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">That was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2009\/04\/what-would-thomas-jefferson-do\" class=\"text link\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a>. Well, not really. It was an AI video of Thomas Jefferson that aired in the middle of the dinner. The selection of Jefferson to deliver this message was likely no accident. Trump is fond of the third president; his portrait hangs in the Oval Office, framed in gold, and last week Trump installed a bronze statue of Jefferson in the Rose Garden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The video continued hammering the theme. It featured clips of Trump arguing with reporters, including his infamous clash with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/jim-acosta\" class=\"text link\">Jim Acosta<\/a>. It featured clips of Trump\u2019s predecessors, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/ronald-reagan\" class=\"text link\">Ronald Reagan<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/george-w-bush\" class=\"text link\">George W. Bush<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/barack-obama\" class=\"text link\">Barack Obama<\/a>, extolling the value of journalists that cover the powerful. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2016\/10\/ken-burns-donald-trump\" class=\"text link\">Ken Burns<\/a> appeared to point out that \u201cJefferson famously championed a free press.\u201d AI Jefferson stepped back in to admonish his predecessor, AI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2008\/03\/theres-a-genera\" class=\"text link\">John Adams<\/a>, for trying to crack down on journalists. AI John Adams looked chastened.<\/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>The room was silent for much of the speech. Even the White House efforts to stuff the venue with cabinet members and West Wing aides didn\u2019t save Donald Trump from bombing. After he stumbled through the Christie cake riff, the camera cut to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who sat stone-faced. White House press secretary&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a64cff3199bc2f22492d222\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/2286866709","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17125","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=17125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}