Trump Roasts Media at Rescheduled WHCD Dinner
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- President Trump attended the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, three months after a gunman forced the original April event's evacuation from the Washington Hilton.
- Trump delivered an hour-long speech jokingly announcing a "fourth term" run and donning a "Trump 2028" hat, while ribbing journalists, Democrats, and even members of his own cabinet.
- The Wall Street Journal won the Katharine Graham Award for its reporting on Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Trump shook hands with the winning reporters despite having refiled a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal's publisher in May.
- CNN's Kaitlan Collins won an award for her coverage of the 2025 Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, drawing fresh attacks from Trump who called her reporting "fake" and told her to "smile."
- CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson issued a post-speech statement defending his network's journalism, saying honest reporting is "fully protected by the U.S. Constitution" even when it irritates politicians.
- Secret Service Police Officer Victor Gonzales received the President's Award after confronting the gunman at the Washington Hilton; he stayed in the fight even after gunfire struck his protective vest.
- Outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang declared "we will not be intimidated," noting the rescheduled event drew a smaller crowd of about 700 and featured tighter security.
Why it matters: Trump's decision to attend — after skipping every dinner during his first term — marks a shift in posture toward the press corps, but his speech doubled down on the combative media-bashing his base rewards, targeting specific award-winning reporters and dismissing CNN's coverage as "fake." The WSJ reporters winning for their Epstein-ties reporting while Trump simultaneously pursues a $10 billion defamation suit against the publisher underscores the unresolved tension between the administration's press fights and the journalism those awards honored.
