Donald Trump joked about seeking a third presidential term and hurled insults at journalists and political rivals in an hour-long speech at the rescheduled White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington on Friday evening.
The event took place three months after the original dinner in April was cancelled when a man fired a shotgun at a security checkpoint outside the ballroom. Officer Victor Gonzalez of the US Secret Service, who was shot at the scene, received an award from Trump for his actions that night.
“Trump mocked journalists and rivals in an hour-long speech at the rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner.”
Trump, who earlier in the week abandoned an effort to subpoena reporters, struck a mixed tone. He praised “most” journalists and said they do an “amazing job”, but also accused the room of producing “fake news” and having “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. “Sometimes I really do think that some of you don’t like me,” he joked.
The president’s speech included personal attacks on several figures. He mocked the weight of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and New York congressman Jerry Nadler, imagining the two wrestling over cheesecake. He said singer Bruce Springsteen “looks like hell”, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins she does not smile enough, and said he “hated” Democratic senator Adam Schiff while mocking his head and neck size.
Trump also took aim at his own administration, quipping that health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had personally run over the cow that became the evening’s “very delicious beef tenderloin”. On foreign policy, he insisted the war with Iran was going “extremely well”, adding: “Don’t believe the fake news.”
The evening had a more sombre undercurrent. WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS News said the association would “refuse to let an act of violence have the final word” and announced that next year’s dinner would return to the Washington Hilton, the scene of the April shooting. Trump echoed that sentiment: “We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate. And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that.”
After a joke about term limits fell flat, Trump ended his remarks with a quip that landed awkwardly: he declared he planned to run and win a fourth election – a reference both to his false claim of winning the 2020 election and his repeated suggestion he could seek a third term despite the constitutional two-term limit.