President Donald Trump returned to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner three months after a gunman disrupted the event.
“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” President Trump said at the beginning of his speech Friday after a lengthy awards ceremony that featured several journalists, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
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The annual, and always controversial, event was originally held in April, but was quickly canceled after a gunman attempted to storm the Capitol with the intent of assassinating President Trump.
“Just like in my presidency, it’s always better the second time, and it’s going to be even better the third time,” Trump quipped, then raised his hands to the crowd and said, “Just kidding.”
The US Constitution limits presidential terms to two terms, but President Trump has playfully floated the idea of running for a third term.
The postponed dinner was held in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and the guest list was 700 people, much smaller than the unsuccessful April gathering.
President Trump said of the alleged assassination attempt, “It was an attack on the very democracy of our country, and it was a very serious situation.”
He praised some of his aides, including Pete Hegseth, Steve Miller and Tom Holman, for showing “courage” during the incident.
“They were standing on the table when most of you were under the table,” he said.
The gunman, Cole Thomas Allen, stormed the security gate of the Washington Hilton, armed with a gun and a knife. He was charged by prosecutors with firing and wounding a Secret Service agent before he could restrain him.
Allen is facing federal charges for attempting to assassinate the president.
“A lot of people were yelling, ‘Get off, get off,’ and Nicki Minaj started twerking,” President Trump said Friday.
“She was the only one who knew what that meant,” Trump added, as journalists in attendance burst into hushed laughter.
President Trump later used the event to rebuke his political opponents and portrayed his attacks as a joke. He called Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom a “new scum,” questioned Rep. Ilhan Omar’s intelligence, and pretended that someone in the audience was calling Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker a “fat pig” to make it seem like he wasn’t the one saying the insult.
The US president also called top Democratic senator Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian” as an insult.
Early in the evening, Trump entered the banquet hall to polite applause.
“This is the largest gathering of people with Trump Derangement Syndrome,” he said, referring to journalists.
US presidents have historically had an acrimonious relationship with the banquet, but this year they heavily promoted this year’s celebration, calling it a “very good thing” and a “hot ticket.”
Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents Association of CBS News, which was acquired by pro-Israel investor David Ellison last year, thanked Trump for his support and for attending for the second time in three months.
“Our message tonight is this: We are back,” she said. “We will not be intimidated. We refuse to give finality to acts of violence.”
Trump’s enthusiastic attendance represents a significant change from the president’s first term in 2017, when the newly elected president declared the soiree “abolished” and then refused to attend for four years.
Beyond President Trump, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has long been a lightning rod for criticism among media professionals, with some journalists arguing that reporters shouldn’t befriend the politicians they cover. Calls for the dinner party to be completely canceled only grew after the incident in April.
