Trump cracks jokes, honors heroes of White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting at glitzy rescheduled gala

President Trump played comedian-in-chief Friday night at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner — where he had the room roaring as he quipped about a third term, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and roadkill, and trying to pair dress shoes with bulletproof vests in an entertaining and sometimes cutthroat speech.

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“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” Trump said at the pared-down, more intimate dinner, three months after the initial night of celebration was cut short by the attempted assassination of the president.

“Won’t soon be forgotten,” the president said of the April dinner, “and I think a lot was learned from that evening.”

“But just like my presidency, the second time is always better. It’s always better, and the third time will be better yet,” he joked to a chorus of laughter.

Near the end of his speech, the president even donned a “Trump 2028” hat as he jokingly announced he’d be running for a “fourth term”, calling it a “scoop” for the reporters in the room. 

Trump opened his address by praising the heroics of law enforcement and the Secret Service, and commended administration officials for looking out for the press when shots rang out outside the Washington Hilton ballroom — before ribbing a Grammy-nominated supporter who was also in the crowd that night.

“After hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, ‘Get down! Get down!’ which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking,” he quipped. “Do you believe?”

Later, Trump joked about trying to pair nice dress shoes with a bulletproof vest — and how he didn’t want to wear the protective gear because it made him look heavier.

“Everyone’s looking really good tonight, and I know it was not easy finding shoes to go along with your bulletproof vest, which many people didn’t want to wear because they’d rather die than look 20 pounds heavier,” he jested.

“They put one on me. I said, ‘Are you sure? I’m not wearing this!”

Striking a more serious tone, he also praised the bravery and strength of the reporters and lawmakers in the room — and extolled the American spirit.

“Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve … to show that in America we do not yield to political violence. We don’t. We can’t do that. Can’t do it. So in this country we live in freedom of speech. We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate. And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that,” he said.

Prior to the president’s remarks, numerous journalism awards and scholarships were handed out.

When a team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal was honored for a report on Trump’s ties to notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, the president was seen laughing and throwing his hands up in the air before graciously shaking hands with all the journalists.

“This has not been an easy evening, all those awards,” Trump responded in his speech, before joking, “Do I have a say?”

The president, of course, also didn’t pass up the chance to take some jabs at the press and his political foes. 

“This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time,” he cracked. 

As the president reminisced about last month’s cage fight outside the Oval Office, he joked, “Before I came along, if you wanted to see someone lose consciousness on the South Lawn of the White House, all you had to do is ask Joe Biden a question.” 

Trump then joked that he’d like to see Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “have a rematch against an extremely simple question on a foreign policy from the Munich Security Conference,” referring to the “Squad” lawmaker’s embarrassing showing at the high-profile European forum. 

Taking aim at musician and rabid Trump hater Bruce Springsteen, Trump asked, “What the hell happened to that guy?” 

“His tour has been renamed ‘Bored in the USA,’” he wisecracked. 

Trump also zinged potential 2028 White House hopeful Gavin Newsom, a frequent critic of the president. 

“I heard Gavin Newscum recently said we will lose our country if we don’t fight fire with fire,” Trump said, before ripping his handling of the devastating California wildfires. 

“To be fair, there’s only one thing we know about Gavin, and that’s that he definitely doesn’t want to fight fire with water.”

Members of Trump’s own staff and Cabinet weren’t immune, either, as the president shared the love. 

Trump joked that the beef tenderloin dish served to guests is “very special” because “Bobby Kennedy … personally ran over the cow in his car.”

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“And he cut it up and he brought it here for you to eat tonight,” he continued. “So it’s very fresh, and Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill, but we drew the line at that.”

A decade ago, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., infamously scooped up a dead bear that had been struck by a car before dumping the carcass in Central Park. 

He also joked about how his spunky press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, can be “nasty.”

“She’s done a fantastic job. We all love her. She’s done a fantastic job … She could be nasty, but sometimes she has no choice,” Trump jabbed. “But Karoline may have one of the hardest jobs in the White House: She has to deal with all of you, all of the time, and you can be very difficult.

“But I’m probably being a little bit oversensitive.”

Trump’s appearance at the annual dinner marks the first time he’s attended as commander-in-chief. The president skipped four straight correspondents’ dinners during his first term, and balked at participating in the first year of his second stint in the White House.

The dinner was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in downtown Washington, which was previously the Trump International Hotel, marking the first time in more than five decades that the gathering of press and political figures hasn’t been held at the Washington Hilton.

Trump had vowed to hold a redo of the April 25 dinner, which was canceled after a deranged gunman ran through a security checkpoint and allegedly shot a Secret Service agent before being taken down just steps away from the Hilton ballroom.

The alleged gunman, Cole Thomas Allen, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president and is awaiting trial.

The shooting prompted organizers and the Secret Service to heighten security for the rescheduled dinner.

Attendees were subject to three security checkpoints, which included multiple ID checks and Secret Service magnetometers, before entering the Waldorf’s ballroom – which has less than a quarter of the Washington Hilton’s capacity, making it easier to vet attendees.

The event did not feature the sprawling cocktail receptions that previous dinners have had.

Traditional printed passes were also replaced with digital ones and an outside security firm was brought in to screen guests as well.

Unlike April’s dinner, Vice President JD Vance and first lady Melania Trump did not attend.

Notable Trump administration officials in attendance included War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was in the middle of a trick when shots were fired outside the ballroom in April, returned Friday night and was once again at the head table with the president.

“Let’s try this again,” Weijia Jiang, who was serving as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at the time of the shooting, said in her opening remarks.

“Many of you were also with us in April,” she continued. “You came as guests, but within moments, you went to work.”

Jiang, a reporter with CBS News, decried the assassination attempt as “an attack on democracy itself.”

“Tonight, our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word,” she declared.

Ahead of the dinner, Leavitt teased that Trump’s speech would be “a combination of unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious, all at the same time.”

“One thing I can assure you,” Leavitt told reporters, “it will be entertaining.” 

Trump spoke for over an hour and thanked the reporters at the end for helping him make the US “the hottest country anywhere in the world.” 

“We all did that together. It’s not me. We all did it together — and we do, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, and we’re going to keep it going,” Trump gushed. 

“And I just want to say, I have tremendous respect for the people in this room… and I have a lot of respect for your profession,” he added. “Your profession’s amazing, and I just want to thank you for having me, and it’s been fun, and I’ve met a lot of great people.”

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