By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter
President Donald Trump received a stony reception as he blasted the press, individual reporters and various Democratic figures during a meandering, hour-long address at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night in Washington, D.C.
“This is really the largest group of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ people put together at one time, I suspect,” Trump told the group of reporters assembled in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, which was a smaller venue than the Washington Hilton where the originally planned WHCA dinner was derailed by an assassination attempt in April.
Acknowledging the difficulty of delivering a speech that manages to honor the somber tone in the wake of April’s incident while being humorous, Trump said, “Is this supposed to be fun? Am I supposed to be serious? Am I supposed to be a comedian? So I guess you said maybe a little bit of everything.”
Trump was largely met with silence as went on later to tear into various people he characterized as unfairly hostile to him, while occasionally ad libbing to indicate that he did not write the speech, calling it at one point “freaking stupid.”
Trump first used the recent UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House earlier this month to segue into mocking the weight of former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.
Trump’s joke matchups for the next UFC fight at the White House…
“Sloppy Chris Christie, Chris Christie, one of the sloppiest human beings you’ll ever meet, fighting – I would say, I could mention the governor of Chicago, but I’m going to mention instead Jerry Nadler, and… pic.twitter.com/jpJaTkYb6j
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 25, 2026
“It was a fantastic celebration, but I can exclusively reveal to you this evening that for the heaviest of the heavyweights, we will have sloppy Chris Christie — one of the sloppiest human beings you’ll ever meet — fighting, I would say, I could mention the governor of Chicago, but I’m going to mention instead Jerry Nadler.”
“And they’re fighting for a big piece of cheesecake, big fat piece of cheesecake. Who the hell wrote that line? But it is true.”
Trump then pivoted to making fun of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for stumbling over her answer to a foreign policy question at the Munich Security Conference in February.
“I watched her give that answer when she was over in Europe. It was not a good answer. If I ever gave that answer, I would be out of politics,” he said.
Trump then joked about CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, whom he said has “got a little different persuasion than me, in many ways, actually,” and MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell, who he said he “never liked” and “never thought he had any talent, but he’s still making a living, so I can’t knock it.” He also singled out former CNN host Don Lemon for having had “the lowest ratings and the lowest IQ on television.”
Regarding Bette Midler and Jane Fonda protesting the UFC fight at the White House, he said given the choice between seeing them and the battered faces of the UFC fighters, “almost everyone chose the people in the UFC.” He then turned to hit at Bruce Springsteen, saying he “looks like hell” and that his tour has been renamed “Bored in the USA.”
Noting the WHCA decided against having a comedian perform at the dinner this year, Trump said they therefore considered using Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, whom he described as “terrible” and “without talent.”
“You know who has talent? Their agents, getting them the money they get. They have no talent, but they are not comedians. They’re not funny people. They’re angry people. They’re sick people.”
Trump reserved particular scorn for Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who he said was considered as potential entertainment for the dinner as a professional clown.
“I’m not supposed to hate him, supposed to love everybody,” he said of Schiff. “But he’s a terrible person. He’s a liar, and I called him ‘watermelon head,’ because he has the largest head I’ve ever seen with the smallest neck, pencil neck. How does that big fat ugly head stand on a little pencil, pencil, pencil neck?”
Trump also tore into his longtime foe Rosie O’Donnell, who fled to Ireland to protest his re-election.
“She really wanted to be here in order to honor me. She loves me very much, and she was desperate to come back to the United States and pay her respects to Donald J. Trump, but that didn’t work out, unfortunately, because nobody wanted her to come back.”
Trump later sarcastically congratulated CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins for receiving a WHCA award that evening, which he dismissed as “fake” before claiming she never smiles while implying she is transgender.
“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can; it was Dylan Mulvaney. And Dylan Mulvaney cost Bud Light $35 billion in market cap, that was the worst commercial ever.”
Trump also joked that Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is illiterate; mocked Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as “a low-IQ person” who married her brother; and ripped Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., by repeating his famous “Pocahontas” moniker.
He also suggested Pritzker is “a fat pig;” claimed Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has turned into a Palestinian who pretends to cry about illegal immigrants; and joked that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is too old to both go up the stairs and have sex on the same evening.
Trump concluded by telling the press their “business model is done” after him because “nobody gives a damn about anybody else.”
“That’s why tonight, to show just how much I care about the press, I’m pleased to announce my intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States. I won three times. Now I’m going to do it again,” he joked before donning a red “Trump 2028” hat to a smattering of applause.
“But on a serious note, I want to once again thank you all. An interesting evening. I didn’t really know what to expect, and it’s been worse than what I expected, if you want to know the truth,” he said.
“I’ve made a lot of friends tonight. I’ve made a lot of good friends tonight. Probably made some enemies also, but it’s been an experience that is something that we’ve all shared together, because we’re all in this room tonight.”
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com