President Donald Trump took the stage at the redo White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Friday, sharing an at times unifying, at other times polarizing message laced with lots of jokes and several roasts of the media and members of his own administration during his one-hour speech.Three months after a gunman breached security in an attempt to assassinate Trump and members of his Cabinet at the dinner, Trump spoke candidly about the moment. He spoke to the resilience of the White House and the press corps in rescheduling the event and addressed the assassination attempt both seriously and with a sense of lightheartedness.“Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve,” Trump said. “Every one of us are here this evening to show that in America we do not yield to political violence. We don’t, we can’t do that, can’t do it. In this country, we believe 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.”
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, Friday, July 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
