Trump Mocks Press at WHCA, Gets Tepid Reception
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- Trump took the WHCA dinner stage Friday and assailed CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Jake Tapper, and Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey by name, repeating his complaint that Collins "never smiles" — a remark he first made after she questioned him about Epstein victims.
- Trump's speech drew a lukewarm reception, prompting him to interrupt his own remarks to ask the crowd "Does anybody get that?" and complain that the speech's writers had buried the one decent joke.
- Trump directed fire at Democratic leaders including Govs. Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former VP Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while repeatedly insulting former President Biden with jokes about consciousness lost on the South Lawn.
- Trump drew one of the night's louder laughs by joking that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "personally ran over the cow in his car" to deliver the beef tenderloin served at the dinner and had suggested a raccoon appetizer.
- Trump closed the speech donning a "Trump 2028" hat after what appeared to be a sarcastic announcement about running for another term, capping the address with overt 2028 branding.
- Trump appeared before the WHCA just months after a gunman allegedly attempted to attack him at the association's April event, opening his remarks by crediting law enforcement for thwarting that attempt.
- Trump shook hands earlier in the evening with the Wall Street Journal team that received a WHCA award for reporting on an alleged Trump birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein — reporting his administration has sued the paper over in court.
Why it matters: The WHCA dinner, once a press-celebration ritual, has become another venue for Trump to convert a media institution into partisan combat — naming individual reporters, brandishing a "Trump 2028" hat, and visibly feuding with his own speechwriters in real time. The lukewarm crowd response and his public frustration at the jokes falling flat suggest even friendly Beltway audiences are tiring of the format, while the sitting president is not dialing it back months after an alleged assassination attempt at the same event.
