Trump mocked reporters at a tightened WHCA dinner months after a shooting halted the first event
US President Donald Trump returned to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with jokes, sharp media attacks and a message about press freedom, three months after the first event was cancelled because of a shooting.
The rescheduled dinner carried a very different mood from the usual Washington media gathering. The room was smaller. Security was heavier. The memory of the April attack remained central to the night.
Trump sat among reporters from organisations he has repeatedly criticised, clashed with and, in some cases, sued. Journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Wall Street Journal were among those present as awards were handed out during the evening.
The outgoing head of the White House Correspondents’ Association said she would not allow violence to define the event. WHCA President Weijia Jiang of CBS News said the dinner would return next year to the Washington Hilton, the site of the April shooting.
Trump also honoured Secret Service officer Victor Gonzalez, who was shot during the first dinner. The president gave him an award for his actions on the night of the attack.
The evening mixed tribute, tension and political theatre. Trump stood to shake hands with award winners, including a Wall Street Journal team recognised for reporting on his links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Many reporters had expected Trump to use the moment to deliver a harsh attack on the media. Instead, he opened with a more relaxed tone. He joked that “the second time is always better” and said he respected “most” members of the press.
That softer tone did not last untouched. Trump soon returned to familiar targets, mocking “fake news” and accusing journalists in the room of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. At one point, he joked that the dinner had brought together the largest group of such people ever gathered in one place.
Still, the president also called for political disagreements to be handled through debate rather than violence. Referring to the April shooting, he said the show had to go on and urged Americans to respect freedom of speech.
Trump told the room that differences should not be settled with bullets, but through open argument. He said no gunman should be allowed to silence or reshape public life.
The dinner took place under strict security. Around 700 people attended, far fewer than the more than 2,000 who had gathered for the first event in April. Several blocks around the hotel were closed off, with police and National Guard personnel visible outside.
Guests went through repeated checks. They had QR codes scanned, IDs inspected and wristbands issued. At one point, visitors were directed to walk in a single-file line past two Secret Service officers holding rifles.
The man accused in the April shooting has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen. He has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.
According to the account given in the report, agents tackled Allen near a staircase leading down to the ballroom, where the dinner was getting underway. The attack forced the original event to be abandoned and cast a long shadow over its return.
Other senior figures attended the rescheduled dinner, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
For Trump, the night became a mix of mockery and symbolism. For the press corps, it was an attempt to reclaim an event interrupted by violence. And for Washington, it was a reminder that even a dinner built on jokes now unfolds under the weight of security, suspicion and political division.