MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump jokes about a third term at correspondents' dinner, three months after the attack

The evening was a repeat of the April 25 event, which was interrupted when a man tried to force his way through a security checkpoint and fired near the ballroom

US President Donald Trump joked about the possibility of seeking a third term during his speech at the annual White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner, held on Friday in Washington. Toward the end of his roughly hour-long remarks, he put on a hat reading “Trump 2028.” The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution bars a president from serving more than two terms.

The evening was a repeat of the April 25 event, which was interrupted when a man tried to force his way through a security checkpoint and fired near the ballroom. The accused was subdued by officers before reaching the venue and faces charges over the incident. The rescheduled edition was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel — which Trump owned before his first presidency — with a considerably smaller guest list and heightened security.

“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” the president said at the outset, in his first appearance as president at an event he had avoided for years. Trump said he had scrapped the harshest passages of the speech he had prepared for April. “That was going to be a doozy,” he said.

Through his remarks he praised part of the press corps and criticized other journalists, while taking swipes at political rivals and public figures, among them hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, Representative Ilhan Omar, California Governor Gavin Newsom, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and musician Bruce Springsteen. Several comments referred to the physical appearance or intellect of those mentioned, and in one case he repeated a claim about a congresswoman that was debunked years ago. NPR judged that some of the remarks flirted with racism.

Much of the humor drew a limited response. According to accounts by CNN and The Washington Post, several jokes were met with silence from the audience. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had previewed the speech as “unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious.”

The association's outgoing president, Weijia Jiang, opened the evening with a reference to the April attack, which she said “tested all of us.” The event also featured the annual journalism awards and a tribute to a Secret Service agent who helped subdue the assailant.

Trump, who has maintained a tense relationship with the press throughout his political career, said he respects most of the correspondents and called his attendance an “honor.” He added that he expects to attend next year's edition, in 2027, though he jokingly made his participation conditional on how the media treat him.