LIVE: Trump Returns to Postponed WHCD

Summary

Podcast Summary: Wired In — LIVE: Trump Returns to Postponed WHCD

Host: Cabot Phillips (Daily Wire)
Date: July 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special edition of "Wired In" takes listeners inside the much-anticipated 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). This year’s event, postponed and relocated after an assassination attempt on President Trump months prior, was historic for its resilience, celebration of the First Amendment, and President Trump’s return to the public spotlight. The episode features live commentary, behind-the-scenes recollections of the shooting, analysis of media coverage, the proceedings of the dinner—including emotional speeches, journalistic honors, and President Trump’s headlining address—and viral entertainment from mentalist Oz Perlman.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage & Recounting the April Shooting

Timestamps: 30:28–46:15

• Cabot Phillips and Brent Scher reminisce about the chaos during the attempted assassination at the previous WHCD, held at the Washington Hilton.
  • Security Failures: The shooter's access as a hotel guest and confusion when gunshots rang outside the ballroom.
  • Personal Accounts: Brent recounts hiding under tables and seeing top officials like FBI Director Kash Patel being evacuated.
  • Press Resilience: Phillips describes the frantic scramble to go live for hours post-incident, highlighting both surreal challenges ("I was sitting on my toddler's coloring table chair for three hours" [36:36]) and the imperative of reporting through crisis.

2. Why Tonight Mattered

Timestamps: 44:13–45:25

• Historical Context: Trump’s WHCD attendance is significant after years of mutual hostility, marking a moment of "redemption" and resilience for both press and presidency.
• Venue Change: The move to the Waldorf Astoria (the old Trump Hotel) for better security and a more intimate, tight-knit event.

3. Opening of the Dinner—Enduring Traditions

Timestamps: 60:14–66:46

• Jackie Heinrich (WHCA President):
  • Reflects on the dinner’s legacy as a “celebration of the First Amendment and our shared duty to serve the American people.”
  • Thanks global supporters post-shooting and lauds the press’s composure (“journalists... gathering facts and getting them to the public ... proved no matter how tense the relationship, our shared duty endures" [62:45]).
• AI “James Madison” Skit: "Let me clarify: the government doesn’t get to shut the press up. Not when it's wrong, not when it's annoying, and not when it's asking uncomfortable questions." (Donald J. Trump, as Madison, 65:30)

4. The Value of a Free Press

Timestamps: 66:46–73:36

• Candid exchanges and reflections from veteran journalists on White House coverage, historical anecdotes, tough presidential interviews, and the responsibility of reporting.
• Quote: “The true danger lies not in a press that is too free, but in one that forgets why it was made free at all.” (Donald J. Trump as AI Madison, 73:39)

5. Honoring Resilience & Journalistic Excellence

Timestamps: 75:23–109:14

• Service Awards: Tributes to the Hilton Hotel staff and Secret Service, including Officer Victor Gonzalez, who “engaged the attacker without hesitation and took a bullet to the chest,” saving hundreds.
• Scholarships: Celebratory recognition for 30 journalism students representing the future of American reporting.
• Journalism Awards:
  • Aldo Beckman Award: Josh Dawsey (Wall Street Journal)
  • Broadcast Deadline Award: Kaitlin Collins (CNN)
  • Kathryn Graham Award for Courage and Accountability: WSJ team exposing the Trump-Epstein connection
  • Collier Prize for State Accountability: KARE11’s Medicaid fraud exposé
  • Lifetime Achievement: Melissa Young and Susan Walsh, trailblazing female photojournalists

6. Personal Stories & Legacy—Women in Journalism

Timestamps: 113:55–127:22

• Susan Walsh and Melissa Young’s Speeches:
  • Emotional recounting of barriers as female photojournalists.
  • “Now that I'm older and there's many more women doing this job, I'm like, you know what? We’re going to claim our space. You guys can be one of the girls, because we got this.” (Diane Williams, 122:00)

7. Jackie Heinrich’s Address: The Power of the First Amendment

Timestamps: 128:12–137:39

• Poignant narrative of her upbringing in rural America as the daughter of immigrants, connecting local traditions to the universal promise of free speech and journalism.
• “Only in America could a little girl born in China and raised in Appalachian coal country make her way to the Oval Office..." (128:54)
• Emphasizes that press freedom is “not a favor to journalists... But America is [special]... the freedom to criticize without fear... is supposed to be the feature.”

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President Trump’s Speech: A Triumphant, Relentless Return

Timestamps: 137:39–201:50

Major Themes:

• Defiance Against Political Violence:

  • “Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve. In America, we do not yield to political violence... no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that.” (138:36)
  • Praises Officer Victor Gonzalez & Secret Service.

• Personal and Political Humor:

  • Jokes about bulletproof vests, Nicki Minaj “twerking” when told to "get down", and political opponents (Chris Christie, AOC, Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff, Rosie O’Donnell, etc.).
  • Self-deprecating humor about enduring media scrutiny and his own transparency: “You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I’m gone, you’ll all be broke. Your business model will be finished.” (195:35)

• Reflection on Media & Transparency:

  • Shares lighthearted anecdotes about receiving press calls as President vs. developer days, and the media’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
  • “I believe in the free press more than anyone in this room does... I’m proud to be the most open and transparent president in history.” (195:16)

• National Optimism and Achievements:

  • Declares America “the hottest country anywhere in the world” with massive investment, new factories, and safer streets in D.C.
  • Announces intention (jokingly?) to run for a “fourth term.”

Notable Quotes:

• “Show must go on. That’s a great term. It’s true in life.” (159:32)
• “The noise you experience today ... may in part be the sound of liberty exercising itself somewhat chaotically.” (73:23)

Memorable Moments:

• Trump’s quips about UFC fights at the White House, Bruce Springsteen concerts renamed “Bored in the USA,” and TikTok views ("I gave up on you people, I gave up on traditional press, and now I’m number one on TikTok" [184:26]).
• Mock-campaign lines: “I will be doing that. I will be having an official... I've won three times now. I'm going to do it again. Should be easy. I’m getting very good at running for president.” (196:16)

---

Entertainment: Oz Perlman the Mentalist

Timestamps: 203:17–241:45
A viral, high-energy segment in which Perlman dazzles the crowd by reading minds, guessing imaginary friends, destinations, cash in wallets, and executing sleight-of-hand with presidential guests, journalists, and even Diane Williams.

• Highlights:
  • Perlman involves audience volunteers, correctly guessing choices from Taj Mahal to Jerry Garcia to Michael Jordan, and even reads the number on a marked $20 bill (240:29).
  • "If you're such a good mentalist, why didn't you see that coming?" — running joke about the April shooting (205:08).

---

Notable Quotes & Speaker Attribution

• “What we share is far more important than anything else. That is our duty to serve the American people.”
  — Jackie Heinrich, WHCA President ([62:45])

• “Let me clarify: the government doesn’t get to shut the press up. Not when it’s wrong, not when it’s annoying, and not when it’s asking uncomfortable questions.”
  — AI "James Madison" (Donald J. Trump), ([65:30])

• “The true danger lies not in a press that is too free, but in one that forgets why it was made free at all.”
  — Donald J. Trump (as AI Madison), [73:39]

• “Only in America could a little girl born in China and raised in Appalachian coal country make her way to the Oval Office to ask questions of the President.”
  — Jackie Heinrich, [128:54]

• “Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve...We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate.”
  — President Donald J. Trump, [138:36]

• “You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I’m gone you’ll all be broke. Your business model will be finished.”
  — President Donald J. Trump, [195:35]

• “We're on the cusp of something big... this is the golden age of America.”
  — President Donald J. Trump, [197:35]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [30:28] – Wired In Pre-show, shooting recollections, venue/security
• [60:14] – Jackie Heinrich Opening
• [66:21] – First Amendment tributes (AI Madison, press reflections)
• [75:23] – Awards & scholarships
• [113:55] – Lifetime Achievement & tributes to female photojournalists
• [128:12] – Jackie Heinrich’s speech (immigrant story, First Amendment)
• [137:39] – President Trump’s full address (humor, reflections, policy)
• [203:17] – Oz Perlman, mentalist performance
• [241:45] – Jackie Heinrich’s closing remarks

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Conclusion

The 2026 WHCD episode of Wired In captured a historic night of survival, solidarity, and the enduring vitality of American democracy. Through moments of gravity, empathy, humor, and celebration, the podcast documents a resounding affirmation: the dinner and the First Amendment are traditions that persist—despite threats—for the benefit of the nation and generations of journalists yet to come.

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For listeners:

• A sweeping narrative from on-the-ground reporting and emotional survival to high-profile honors and presidential comedy.
• A timely reminder that, in a divided era, the bedrock freedoms—speech, press, assembly—are most visible and vital when most under threat.

Transcript

[Donald J. Trump]

Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer?

[Oz Perlman]

May I suggest your big wireless build?

[Donald J. Trump]

It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat

[Oz Perlman]

emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time.

[Donald J. Trump]

Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15 a month, even unlimited.

[Oz Perlman]

That's it.

[Caba Phillips]

Happy ending, zero tears.

[Oz Perlman]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Diane Williams]

of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50gb. Me slow when network is busy. See terms.

[Donald J. Trump]

Did I mention I hate heights? Uh. Oh. Holy. My name is Pawo. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a real man.

[Brent Scher]

So I'm gonna hit the road, meet

[Donald J. Trump]

the men that are manly, courageous and strong. The men that I wanted to be like when I was a kid. Daddy's coming with some food. I don't know if there's a more noble cause or better people to work with. I'm gonna see if I can be just like them. We don't see ourselves. We honestly just think it's doing our job. If you want to be a hero,

[Brent Scher]

if you want to be a badass, be a man.

[Donald J. Trump]

Like these guys. Eight episodes.

[Jonathan Karl]

I am so deep.

[Donald J. Trump]

Eight life lessons. My name is Paavo. PMN with me.

[Jonathan Karl]

Deep breath in. In between breath. Take the shot. You done really good out there, kid.

[Donald J. Trump]

Size of that deer. We're gonna be eating venison all summer

[Diane Williams]

on a day's work.

[Jonathan Karl]

I think we need to see somebody again.

[Diane Williams]

And by we, you mean me.

[Oz Perlman]

No, I mean us.

[Donald J. Trump]

Hey. That look in your eye. Guys in my unit had that loco.

[Diane Williams]

Maybe there's a brochure you can hand me so I can go. Is that Chris Jelick over there?

[Donald J. Trump]

Is he doing something completely weird? Senior prank day. But we'll see all kinds of dumb stuff today. Swim captain. We'll have Thai food delivered to class and Becky Vaughn will set up her homemade Slip n Slide.

[Diane Williams]

This is high school. Nothing that happens here matters in the real world,

[Weijia Jiang]

Okay?

[Donald J. Trump]

We are in charge now. Also, please pull out whichever app you

[Caba Phillips]

use to do live streaming video.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get them up and running and point it at me. Now get down on the ground. Any more friends back there?

[Oz Perlman]

I'm calling 911.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get back to your home room and

[Jonathan Karl]

stay put until the.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Nine one one.

[Diane Williams]

What's your emergency?

[Donald J. Trump]

You must be close.

[Oz Perlman]

You should be ashamed.

[Josh Dawsey]

Very disturbing news.

[Jonathan Karl]

Out of Vernon Central High School.

[Oz Perlman]

Zo.

[Jonathan Karl]

In between breath. Take a shot.

[Donald J. Trump]

Go. Is it safe to say that this might be our guardian angel? Do you want more people to die?

[Diane Williams]

That's the last thing I want.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm gonna kill one person in this room every five minutes you don't show your face.

[Diane Williams]

Isn't it ironic? But after all your hard work, people aren't gonna remember you. No, they're gonna remember me.

[Jonathan Karl]

A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian

[Diane Williams]

very claustrophobic 7B2 stealth bombers took off loaded with £420,000 of advanced bunker busting bombs and emission. But how did they pull this off?

[Caba Phillips]

Hey guys, Caba Phillips here.

[Brian Bennett]

Big news.

[Caba Phillips]

Wired in is now expanding to Apple podcasts and Spotify. You've been watching on the Daily Wire app. Now you can listen anywhere. Driving home from work, on the treadmill, cooking dinner wherever you guys are all busy. You have lives, you have jobs, you're raising kids. Well, the news doesn't stop while you're working. But if you want a news show that sifts through all the noise and just brings you the truth and the facts, a show that respects your time and your intelligence, then Wired in is for you. Every Monday through Thursday, we're breaking down the biggest stories in politics and culture, the ones you won't hear about in the mainstream press. And we're actually talking to people who are in the story. So here's what to do right now. Go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, Search Wired in and hit Follow. And then share it with your friends, with your family. Send it to your mortal enemies, I don't care. Get it to everyone. Search Wired in on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

[Donald J. Trump]

Hit follow.

[Caba Phillips]

We'll have new episodes every Monday through Thursday.

[Weijia Jiang]

Once upon a time there was a country. Not just a country, but a big one. An empire. And in that empire there was an upper middle class family who had two raised by their mother, loved books, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Bible. Their father admired the country's leaders, were patriotic and happy. Both sons went to universities where they were radicalized. One of the brothers read a book and convinced him to try to shoot the country's leader. He was hanged. The other brother read the same books but decided to lead a movement. First they came from universities. No one seemed to care. Then they took over the unions and again no one seemed to care. Then they created their own media organizations and took over the cities. And again, most people just ignored it. Change, after all, was something they could believe in until it was too late. Sound familiar? This is the real history of communism. The Russian Revolution.

[Diane Williams]

The Internet is a dark place. Algorithms are trained to amplify negativity, politics create harsh divides. It can all feel so overwhelming at times. But if you plug back into real life, the world is vast and it's beautiful. Light reveals what darkness tries to conceal. And only in the light can there be healing and clarity and joy and freedom. And that is precisely why I have created this new channel. It is a place for the right kind of kind of stories and the right kind of people to go viral. As a young woman, a new mom and a Christian, I have been eager to understand how to navigate the 2020s. In the midst of so much crazy from drug epidemics, women's health crises, online cults targeting children, parental fears and dangerous ideologies. There's just so many issues and so many underreported stories that need to be amplified. I want to leave you feeling informed, challenged, at times empowered and optimistic about the future of this culture in this country. With every single episode, you'll get a mix of video, essay, deep dives, long form conversations, mini docs, and sometimes just my personal thoughts. And that's the beauty of this show. We can have it all now. I was trained in broadcast journalism, but here I'm not confined to the quick news hits or 60 second sound bites. Each new video is crafted for each unique story. I'll be digging into issues shaping our world and and sitting down with real experts, not just to better understand what's going on, but to look for real solutions. This is a journey I've wanted to take for a long time now. And more than anything, I want to build bridges through honest conversations. I'm curious about the culture, grounded in truth and pursuing the purpose my creator has for me. And I am so excited for you guys to join me on this journey. So if you have any topics or stories you want me to look into, send them my way and let's dive in.

[Tyler Pager]

All of America's tariffs went into place. How do those tariffs actually work? DEFCON won on a government shutdown. Government shutdown is a paradigm for global trade. Trade wars. The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and protesting ICE agents. The seizure of Maduro Iran is a threat. President Trump announced that giant tariff regime. Really chaotic trade wars tend to impoverish the American consumer. In particular, Democrats are struggling with the government shutdown. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Wall saying agents are like the Gestapo, like the Kkk the CIA cultivated a source within Maduro's inner circle, provided information on his whereabouts. The Iranian government has been responsible for the death of hundreds if not thousands of Americans. The president decided to end that threat. We have a terror warning in Northern Virginia.

[Donald J. Trump]

Radical Islam has designs openly on the West.

[Diane Williams]

The FBI thwarted a terror plot on New Year's Eve.

[Melissa Young]

Violent attack over the Halloween weekend in Michigan.

[Donald J. Trump]

Protests on college campuses showing no signs of stopping. Sam, Did I mention I hate heights?

[Jonathan Karl]

Uh.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh. Holy. My name is Pawo. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a real man.

[Brent Scher]

So I'm gonna hit the road, meet

[Donald J. Trump]

the men that are manly, courageous and strong. The that I wanted to be like when I was a kid. Daddy's coming with some food. I don't know if there's a more noble cause or better people to work with. I'm gonna see if I can be just like them. We don't see ourselves as heroes. We honestly just think it's doing our job. If you want to be a hero,

[Brent Scher]

if you want to be a badass, be a man.

[Donald J. Trump]

Like these guys. Woo. Eight episodes I am so deep. Eight Life lessons. My name is Paavo. PMN with

[Jonathan Karl]

deep breath in. In between breath. Take the shot. You done really good out there, kid.

[Donald J. Trump]

Size of that deer. We're gonna be eating venison all summer

[Diane Williams]

on a day's work.

[Jonathan Karl]

I think we need to see somebody again.

[Donald J. Trump]

And by we mean no, I mean us. Hey. That look in your eye. Guys in my unit had that look.

[Diane Williams]

Maybe there's a brochure you can hand me so I can go. Is that Chris Jelick over there?

[Donald J. Trump]

Is he doing something completely weird? Senior prank day. Look, we'll see all kinds of dumb stuff today. Swim captain. We'll have Thai food delivered to class and Becky Vaughn will set up her home. Eight slip and slide.

[Diane Williams]

This is high school. Nothing that happens here matters in the real world,

[Weijia Jiang]

Okay?

[Donald J. Trump]

We are in charge now. So please pull out whichever app you

[Caba Phillips]

use to do live streaming video.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get them up and running and pointed at me. Now get down on the ground. Any more friends back there?

[Oz Perlman]

I'm calling 91 1.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get back to your home room and

[Jonathan Karl]

stay put until the.

[Donald J. Trump]

911.

[Diane Williams]

What's your emergency?

[Susan Walsh]

Sh.

[Donald J. Trump]

You must be close. You should be ashamed.

[Jonathan Karl]

Very disturbing news out of Vernon High School.

[Oz Perlman]

Zoe.

[Jonathan Karl]

In between breath. Take a shot.

[Donald J. Trump]

Go. Is it safe to say that this might be our guardian angel? Do you want more people to die?

[Diane Williams]

That's the last thing I want.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm gonna kill one person in this Room every five minutes, you don't show your picture.

[Diane Williams]

Isn't it ironic that after all your hard work, people aren't gonna remember you? No, they're gonna remember me.

[Jonathan Karl]

A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime.

[Donald J. Trump]

Very claustrophobic.

[Diane Williams]

Seven B2 stealth bombers took off loaded with £420,000 of advanced bunker busting bombs and a mission. But how did they pull this off?

[Caba Phillips]

Hey, guys, Caba Phillips here. Big news. Wired in is now expanding to Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You've been watching on the Daily Wire app. Now you can listen anywhere. Driving home from work, on the treadmill, cooking dinner wherever. You guys are all busy. You have lives, you have jobs, you're raising kids. Well, the news doesn't stop while you're working. But if you want a news show that sifts through all the noise and just brings you the truth and the facts, a show that respects your time and your intelligence, then Wired in is for you. Every Monday through Thursday, we're breaking down the biggest stories in politics and culture, the ones you won't hear about in the mainstream press. And we're actually talking to people who are in the story. So here's what to do right now. Go to Apple Podcast or Spotify. Search Wired in and hit follow. And then share it with your friends, with your family. Send it to your mortal enemies. I don't care. Get it to everyone. Search Wired in on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

[Donald J. Trump]

Hit follow.

[Caba Phillips]

We'll have new episodes every Monday through Thursday.

[Weijia Jiang]

Once upon a time, there was a country. Not just a country, but a big one. An empire. In that empire, there was an upper middle class family where two boys raised by their mother loved books, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Bible. Their father admired the country's leaders, were patriotic and happy. Both sons went to universities where they were radicalized. One of the brothers read a book and convinced him to try to shoot the country's leader. He was hanged. The other brother read the same books but decided to lead a movement. First they came from universities and no one seemed to care. Then they took over the unions, and again, no one seemed to care. Then they created their own media organizations and took over the cities. And again, most people just ignored it. Change, after all, was something they could believe in until it was too late. Sound familiar? This is the real history of communism. The Russian Revolution.

[Diane Williams]

The Internet is a dark place. Algorithms are trained to amplify negativity. Politics create harsh divides. It can all feel so overwhelming at times. But if you plug back into real life, the world is vast and it's beautiful light reveals what darkness tries to conceal. And only in the light can there be healing and clarity and joy and freedom. And that is precisely why I have have created this new channel. It is a place for the right kind of stories and the right kind of people to go viral. As a young woman, a new mom and a Christian, I have been eager to understand how to navigate the 2020s. In the midst of so much crazy from drug epidemics, women's health crises, online cults targeting children, parental fears and dangerous ideologies. There's just so many issues and so many underreported stories that need to be amplified. I want to leave you feeling intense, informed, challenged, at times empowered and optimistic about the future of this culture in this country. With every single episode you'll get a mix of video, essay deep dives, long form conversations, mini docs, and sometimes just my personal thoughts. And that's the beauty of this show. We can have it all. I was trained in broadcast journalism, but here I'm not confined to the quick news hits or 60 second sound bites. Each new video is crafted for each unique story. I'll be dating digging into issues shaping our world and sitting down with real experts. Not just to better understand what's going on, but to look for real solutions. This is a journey I've wanted to take for a long time now. And more than anything, I want to build bridges through honest conversations. I'm curious about the culture, grounded in truth and pursuing the purpose my creator has for me. And I am so excited for you guys to join me on this journey. So if you have any topics or stories you want me to look into, send them my way and let's dive in.

[Tyler Pager]

All of America's tariffs went into place. How do those tariffs actually work? DEFCON 1 on a government shutdown Government shutdown is a paradigm for global trade trade wars. The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that protesting ICE agents the seizure of Maduro Iran is a threat. President Trump announced that giant tariff regime really chaotic trade wars take to impoverish the American consumer. In particular, Democrats are struggling with the government shutdown. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Wall saying ICE agents are like the Gestapo, like the kkk. The CIA cultivated a source within Maduro's inner circle who provided information on his whereabouts. The Iranian government has been responsible for the death of hundreds if not thousands of Americans. The President decided to end that threat.

[Donald J. Trump]

We have a terror warning in Northern Virginia Radical Islam has designs openly on the West.

[Diane Williams]

The FBI sported a terror plot on New Year's Eve.

[Melissa Young]

Violent attack over the Halloween weekend in Michigan.

[Donald J. Trump]

Protests on college campuses showing no signs of stopping. Sam, Did I mention I hate heights?

[Weijia Jiang]

Uh.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh. Holy. My name is Pawo. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a real man.

[Brent Scher]

So I'm gonna hit the road, meet

[Donald J. Trump]

the men that are manly, courageous and strong. The men that I wanted to be like when I was a kid. Daddy's coming with some food. I don't know if there's a more noble cause or better people to work with. I'm gonna see if I can be just like them. We don't see as heroes. We honestly just think it's doing our job. If you want to be a hero, if you want to be a badass, be a man. Like these guys. Eight episodes I am so deep. Eight life lessons. My name is Paavo. BMN with me.

[Jonathan Karl]

Deep breath in. In between breath. Take the show. He's done really good out there, kid.

[Donald J. Trump]

Size of that deer.

[Brent Scher]

We're gonna be eating venison all summer.

[Diane Williams]

Another day's work.

[Donald J. Trump]

I think we need to see somebody again.

[Diane Williams]

And by we, you mean me.

[Oz Perlman]

No, I mean us.

[Donald J. Trump]

Hey, that look in your eye.

[Oz Perlman]

Guys in my unit had that look.

[Diane Williams]

Maybe there's a brochure you can hand me so I can go. Is that Chris Jelick over there?

[Donald J. Trump]

Is he doing something completely weird? Senior Prank day.

[Diane Williams]

Look.

[Donald J. Trump]

We'll see all kinds of dumb stuff today. Swim captain. We'll have Thai food delivered to class, and Becky Vaughn will set up her homemade slip n slide.

[Diane Williams]

This is high school. Nothing that happens here matters in the real world.

[Weijia Jiang]

Okay?

[Donald J. Trump]

We are in charge now. So please pull out whichever app you

[Caba Phillips]

use to do live streaming video.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get them up and running and pointed at me. Now get down on the ground. Any more friends back there?

[Oz Perlman]

I'm calling 911.

[Donald J. Trump]

Get back to your home room and see.

[Jonathan Karl]

Stay put until the.

[Donald J. Trump]

You must be close.

[Oz Perlman]

You should be ashamed.

[Jonathan Karl]

Very disturbing news out of Vernon Central High School.

[Weijia Jiang]

Zoe.

[Jonathan Karl]

In between breath. Take a shot.

[Donald J. Trump]

Go. Is it safe to say that this might be our guardian angel? Do you want more people to die?

[Diane Williams]

That's the last thing I want.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm gonna kill one person in this room every five minutes you don't show your face.

[Diane Williams]

Isn't it ironic that after all your hard work, people aren't gonna remember you? No, they're gonna remember me.

[Jonathan Karl]

A short time ago, the US military cap carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime.

[Donald J. Trump]

Very claustrophobic.

[Diane Williams]

Seven B2 stealth bombers took off loaded with £420,000 of advanced bunker busting bombs and a mission. But how did they pull this off?

[Caba Phillips]

Hey, guys, Cabba Phillips here. Big news. Wired in is now expanding to Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You've been watching on the Daily Wire app. Now you can listen anywhere. Driving home from work, on the treadmill, cooking dinner, wherever. You guys are all busy. You have lives, you have jobs, you're raising kids. Well, the news doesn't stop while you're working. But if you want a new show that sifts through all the noise and just brings you the truth and facts, a show that respects your time and your intelligence, then Wired in is for you. Every Monday through Thursday, we're breaking down the biggest stories in politics and culture, the ones you won't hear about in the mainstream press. And we're actually talking to people who are in the story. So here's what to do right now. Go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Search Wired in and hit follow. And then share it with your friends, with your family. Send it to your mortal enemies. I don't care. Get it to everyone. Search Wired in on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

[Donald J. Trump]

Hit follow.

[Caba Phillips]

We'll have new episodes every Monday through Thursday.

[Weijia Jiang]

Once upon a time, there was a country. Not just a country, but a big one. An empire. In that empire, there was an upper middle class family where two boys were raised by their mother. Loved books, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Bible. Their father admired the country's leadership, patriotic and happy. Both sons went to universities where they were radicalized. One of the brothers read a book and convinced him to try to shoot the country's leader. He was hanged. The other brother read the same books, but decided to lead a movement. First they came from universities and no one seemed to care. Then they took over the unions and again no one seemed to care. Then they created their own media organizations and took over the cities. And again, most people just ignored. Change, after all, was something they could believe in until it was too late. Sound familiar? This is the real history of communism. The Russian revolution.

[Diane Williams]

The Internet is a dark place. Algorithms are trained to amplify negativity. Politics create harsh divides. It can all feel so overwhelming at times. But if you plug back into real life, the world is vast and it's beautiful. Light reveals what darkness tries to conceal. And only in the light can there be healing and clarity and joy and freedom. And that is precisely why I have created this new channel. It is a place for the right kind of stories and the right kind of people to go viral. As a young woman, a new mom and a Christian, I have been eager to understand how to navigate the 2020s in the midst of so much crazy from drug epidemics, women's health crises, online cults targeting children, parental fears and dangerous ideologies. There's just so many issues and so many underreported stories that need to be amplified. I want to leave you feeling informed, challenged, at times empowered and optimistic about the future of this culture in this country. With every single episode, you'll get a mix of video, essay, deep dives, long form conversations, mini docs, and sometimes just my personal thoughts. And that's the beauty of this show. We can have it all now. I was trained in broadcast journalism, but here I'm not confined to the quick news hits or 60 second sound bites. Each new video is crafted for each unique story. I'll be digging into issues shaping our world and sitting down with real experts, not just to better understand what's going on, but to look for real solutions. This is a journey I've wanted to take for a long time now. And more than anything, I want to build bridges through honest conversations. I'm curious about the culture, grounded in truth and pursuing the purpose my creator has for me. And I am so excited for you guys to join me on this journey. So if you have any topics or stories you want me to look into, send them my way and let's dive in.

[Tyler Pager]

All of America's tariffs went into place. How do those tariffs actually work? DEFCON won on a government shutdown. Government shutdown is on the paradigm for global trade. Trade wars. The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade protesting ICE agents. The seizure of Maduro. Iran is a threat. President Trump announced that giant tariff regime. Really chaotic trade wars tend to impoverish the American consumer. In particular, Democrats are struggling with the government shutdown. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Wall saying ICE agents are like the Gestapo, like the kkk. CIA cultivated a source within Maduro's inner circle, provided information on his whereabouts. The Iranian government has been responsible for the death of hundreds if not thousands of Americans. The President decided to end that threat. We have a terror warning in Northern Virginia.

[Donald J. Trump]

Radical Islam has designs openly on the West.

[Diane Williams]

The FBI sported a terror plot on New Year's Eve.

[Melissa Young]

Violent attack over the Halloween weekend in Michigan.

[Donald J. Trump]

Protests on college campuses showing no signs of stopping.

[Caba Phillips]

Well, good evening everybody and welcome to a special Friday night edition of Wired in. It's going to be a big night. In just a few moments, the White House Correspondents Dinner is going to kick off in Washington, D.C. and we've got you covered here on the Daily Wire. We're going to get you to the venue the moment that things kick off. But for now, let's get this pre show rolling as we anticipate the big night ahead. Let's do this thing. Roll that graph. All right, guys, thanks again for tuning in and joining us for what is going to be a very fun evening. And here to help me set the stage as Daily Wire Editor in Chief, Brent Scher. Brent, how are we doing tonight?

[Brent Scher]

I'm good. I'm good. I'm not in D.C. this time. I'm here in Nashville.

[Caba Phillips]

It is painful that you have to be reminded that you were supposed to be at the original one, which it is no laughing matter. Thankfully, we're able to kind of have some fun with it now, it being a few months removed. But what was that experience like? Obviously, this event is taking place tonight because the original correspondence dinner was cut short, really, before it even started. After that attempted assassination on President Trump and other members of the administration. What was that night like?

[Brent Scher]

Yeah, I mean, I remember spending hours of it with you on the live stream, kind of trying to figure out what just happened and what was happening next and whether that Donald Trump, if you remember that night, he was like, let's keep the dinner going. We're gonna have it. And he wanted to keep everybody in there as somebody was there. That would have been a terrible idea. It was too chaotic. People had run out. The security perimeter, which was already questionable, had been taken down at that point. But that night, he promised that we would do it again. I mean, you remember we had that really, really cool press briefing at midnight in Washington, D.C. with all the reporters and the president and his whole team in black tie. And they said we'd be doing it again. And promises made, promises kept. We're doing it tonight. And I'm pretty excited for what Donald Trump says. I mean, this is kind of classic Trump, right? They tried to get him at Butler. We had Butler 2.0, and it was one of the biggest rallies of his 2024 campaign. Then they tried to get him at the White House Correspondent's dinner. We're not canceling the dinner. Trump will be there. And it looks like it's gonna be fun.

[Caba Phillips]

Yeah. And they tried to get him while he was golfing, and he continued golfing. He said, hey, I'm not gonna change my life because of these people. I'm going to continue doing what I do. And before we get to what we expect tonight, I do just want to. I think a lot of people remember that night watching. We were live for, I don't know, three hours afterwards. I just want to remind people what that night actually was like for you because you were in the room. I remember us talking off air beforehand and you said, I heard the gunshots. I don't know what's going on. What are you seeing on the news? Because it was so chaotic. What was that actual scene like?

[Brent Scher]

I remember it vividly, and it's being in one of the most crowded rooms I've ever been in, around some of the most prominent, famous people I've ever been around, from Cabinet secretaries to celebrities to Donald Trump. And we were just sitting down for dinner when outside of the door that was closest to where I was sitting, we heard a bunch of very loud gunshots. And then the entire crowded 2000 plus person ballroom hopped under their tables and was just in a moment of panic and fear because mainly of the uncertainty. We didn't know what was happening and we didn't know what happened for a long time. If you remember, those first reports of what happened were completely wrong, that the person was shot down by Secret Service. They were not, in fact, Secret Service missed. But for us in that room, we had no idea. We had no idea whether the situation was over. I will never forget getting out with my wife and our friends and colleagues all under the table. I was kind of peeking up to see what was happening, and I saw Kash Patel, the FBI director, and his girlfriend, getting panicked. They weren't panicked. The people around them were just urgently getting them out of the room. And I was helping move some chairs. But that's, I think, what set a lot of people off was seeing these very famous, important cabinet members get rushed out of the room. And everybody's like, we need to get out of this room, too. And we did. And then everybody kind of congregated in that lobby as a bunch of reporters were just trying to figure out what happened. I mean, one of the most thrilling reporting nights of my life. I'll remember flagging over Katie Pavelich, our friend over at News Nation, just to get her on there. And we brought her onto the show with you. I remember giving her my cell phone. It was just really on the ground reporting and figuring it out.

[Caba Phillips]

What I will remember most from that night is once I knew that everyone was okay, because my initial response was, oh, my gosh, it happened again. Is everyone okay? Once I knew that, the main thing I was thinking of that night was how hot I was because I was not ready to do that stream. I was actually in bed with my son, laying him down, reading him a book. I get a call from my producer and he says, you need to get out right now, get on set. Within five minutes, I was live. And just before we went live, my wife had been rushing through, helping me set up a makeshift set, and the AC was really loud and I said, just turn the AC off. No big deal. It was so hot in Nashville that day, and it just was sweltering upstairs and I was dripping sweat the entire stream. And my wife crawled on her hands and knees under the camera and brought me a little cloth to dab my forehead.

[Brent Scher]

That's not even the best part. What were you sitting on?

[Caba Phillips]

I was sitting on my toddler's little 16 inch tall chair for his coloring

[Brent Scher]

table, just doing a power squat. And then 100.

[Caba Phillips]

I was doing a power squat for about three hours, two and a half hours straight. And I kid you not, my legs and my butt hurt for a week and a half afterwards. But I do this for the people of the Daily Wire.

[Brent Scher]

What I remember most is being on there with you with my phone, which was running out of batteries at one point, my wife and me switched off phones and we figured out with producers how to get my wife's phone into the feed. But I wasn't obviously seeing what was on. And this is new territory for all of us. I don't think many people have had to live stream from the shooting of a White House correspondence dinner. I didn't know when I was on camera and I was looking around trying to figure out what was going on. I know in the comments section, people are like, what is this guy doing?

[Caba Phillips]

We were trying to text you to say, hey, you're on camera right now as you're talking to people, but you couldn't look at your phone because you were using it to us.

[Brent Scher]

And I had to be talking to people because I had to figure out what's going on.

[Caba Phillips]

And again, I'm glad that we're able to have a little bit of fun and bring levity to the situation. Obviously, in the moment, it was terrifying. But I think one reason we're able to have this attitude is because President Trump himself has been so resilient and has been sort of taking this triumphant stand of, I'm going to do this again. So what is going to be different about the event tonight after it's taken a few months to reschedule.

[Brent Scher]

Aside from the fact that I won't be there, I will be replaced. It's a big loss by our lovely White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Olihan, who was out of the country last time. She's back and she'll be there tonight. And I'm excited for her, and she's excited. But it's also a very different event. There is. It's at a different venue. It's moved from the Washington Hilton to the Waldorf Astoria, which is the old Trump Hotel. And from somebody who's been at events, many events at the old Trump Hotel. I was even there right before July 4th. It's completely different because there's actually a different event space. One of the big problems with security at the Washington Hilton, if you'll remember, is the shooter was staying at the hotel. So by being a guest, you have access to all of those corridors and hallways where security was at the Trump Hotel or the Waldorf. Now, it's very different. Hotel's here, and it's a completely different event space. Ballroom, where there are a ton of events, and they are a ton of events that have been attended by Donald Trump. So he knows and trusts the security very, very much. But it's also going to be a much smaller event. They're calling it a more intimate, I could say, personally, for the Daily Wire, we have a smaller contingent that's going to be there. They are not granting us the full amount of tickets that we had at our original event. I know that that's not unique to us. The idea is that it's more just the actual White House correspondence and the people that were gonna be there. Cause if you remember, this dinner is not just about glitz and glam and, you know, having fun. They give awards out to different correspondents, which is probably the worst part of the event. But there's also a scholarship that goes to student journalists.

[Caba Phillips]

There's comedians a lot of times.

[Brent Scher]

Yeah. Which I don't think is happening tonight. But again, we don't know kind of until we see it. This is Donald Trump. Maybe there's some tricks he has out of his hat, because, look, he likes putting on a show. He doesn't want this to be. I really look forward to seeing what he has to say. We're talking about how memorable it was for us. Know who it was more memorable for? The guy they were trying to kill.

[Caba Phillips]

You mentioned this event being. And by the way, everyone, if this event starts a little early, don't worry, you're not gonna miss anything. If we Just cut off abruptly. It's because they are taking you right to the feet of the event. So don't worry, you're not gonna miss anything. But you mentioned this event being at the Waldorf Astoria, which is the old Trump Hotel. I have to tell a story I think our audience will appreciate from an experience I had at the Waldorf Astoria during President Trump's first term. It was the watering hole for many in the administration. Anyone in conservative politics, that is where you went to hang out. So in either 2017 or 2018, there was a women's march going on. I had to catch a train directly after the women's march. But I was covering the women's march. I was filming a video there, interviewing people. So I showed up and I realized I have nowhere to put my suitcase and I have to leave immediately after this. What am I gonna do? My starting point for filming was right outside the Trump Hotel. Who walks out of the Trump Hotel but Charlie Kirk. I see Charlie, we say hi, we start chatting, and I say, dude, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my bags. And he's like, oh. He's like, you can just keep him in my room. I'm actually staying at the Trump Hotel tonight. I'm like, great, awesome. So he takes me up to his room, drop my bags, we come back down. He's like, I'll be back in like an hour and a half. I'm like, perfect. That's all the time that I need. So I leave my bags there and I go out, I start filming and I come into the hotel and I text Charlie. I'm like, hey, man, I gotta go, I gotta catch my train. And he says, dude, I'm stuck at like a security checkpoint. Cause the march had come by at that point, and they locked the entire thing down. And I'm like, please hurry up and get here. And so I remember going to the front desk and telling them, you have someone staying here. I need you to open his door for me so I can get my bags. And they're like, uh, who is it? I was like, it's Charlie Kirk. And they're like, oh, sure, yeah. And I'm like, no, seriously. I was like, my bags are in his room. I need to get him out. Charlie didn't make it there in time. I had to reschedule my train. I missed my train because of it. It was a whole disaster. But that is my experience, the hotel.

[Brent Scher]

I have a less star studded but equally hilarious Trump Hotel story. I was at the Ribbon Cutting for the Trump hotel back in 2016. It was a week or two before the election. Everybody was kind of treating the campaign as a bit of a joke at that point because of course, we were getting ready to break the glass ceiling with Hillary Clinton. I went to that ribbon cutting and then we were trying to film an event from the brand new Trump Hotel. Right after they cut the ribbon, they're telling us everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave. And I was like, well, the hotel's open. Can we get a drink? They go, no, it's closed. It's closed. But the bartender at the Trump Hotel goes, technically, we cut the ribbon and we're open. So I ordered the first ever drink tonic from the Trump Hotel bar and did a terrible, useless video. But it was so cool. But it did force me to have a 10:30 gin and tonic. But it was for the job.

[Caba Phillips]

Yes, of course it was for the job. This is what you do because you care about bringing the important news to the people. We're about to send everyone over to the event. But before we go, I'm interested in the media side of this. Do you think that the typically the White House Correspondent's Dinner is wall to wall coverage on the networks. Do you think that they will give that same coverage tonight? Or are we going to see a more tepid response? Because they know this is going to be a triumphant night for President Trump coming back from this attempt on his life.

[Brent Scher]

It's a really interesting question, and I'm wondering it, you know, it's what we said before. This is a big speech for Donald Trump because it takes guts for him to return to this same podium and obviously at a different venue, but for the same sort of thing. And again, we talked about this last time, but this is a place where he doesn't usually go. He had never attended the White House Correspondents Dinner since that one where Barack Obama makes fun of him when Obama was the president. But for Trump, this was always hostile territory and it was because of how the reporters treated him. You would think that there would be a bit of respect and celebration of kind of this great American moment of redemption coming back despite threats and violence that we see in rhetoric all day against the president. But I'm not that hopeful. I mean, you've already seen the same sort of chatter you always see, like attacking journalists for going to the dinner because Donald Trump's gonna be there. It's just absurd.

[Caba Phillips]

Yeah, it's gonna be a wild night. Hopefully it will be much more fun than the last one. And we are very eager to see what President Trump has to say tonight. We're gonna get you guys over to the venue right now as things kick off. Daily Wire editor in Chief Brent Scher, thank you for being here and thank you all for watching and spending your Friday night with us. Let's get you over to the White House Correspondence dinner in Washington, D.C.

[Donald J. Trump]

It's, It's, It. It's. Sam. It's, It's, It's, It's. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to the podium, from CBS News, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, Weijia Jiang.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Welcome Back to the 2026 White House Correspondence Dinner. I hope everyone enjoyed their meal. Since Calvin Coolidge became the first president to attend this event in 1924, nearly every sitting president has joined us at some point in their term. The tradition is rooted in a simple principle that a president and the press corps that covers him can share a meal and even a joke. This dinner has never lacked for opinions. I know everyone has a lot of feelings about it, even under normal circumstances, and people ask, should it still exist, but every year we pack the room. In fact, we just did it twice. Whatever brought you here tonight, this evening is dedicated to the First Amendment and the excellent work of our colleagues and scholars. President Trump, you are joining us tonight for the second time in three months, and we don't take that lightly. Thank you. Thank you again to Press Secretary Caroline Levitt and the White House press team. Thanks to the relentless WHCA board members, our executive director, Steve Thoma, and our general counsel, Simon Lakovich, For your hard work and friendship. I have to say thank you again to my CBS News family for enduring a second round of dinner planning. And of course, my family, I love you so much. Our entertainer mentalist Oz Perlman is also back with us. Thank you, Oze. For the record, he did guess Caroline's baby's name right last time. And we can't wait to see what you reveal. But you can skip the part where you guess the president's phone number because half the reporters in this room already have it. Finally, on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I also want to thank supporters from around the world across the political spectrum who sent well wishes after a shooting interrupted our event in April. Many of you are joining us on Livestream and C Span is the crew as it was that night, photographers and technicians were under the stairs where the shooter was, but they never stopped rolling their cameras and transmitting live footage, despite the circumstances. Thank you. That night tested all of us, but it revealed something worth fighting for. While journalists in the ballroom were gathering facts and getting them to the public, I got a rare glimpse of something few of us ever see in real time. In a holding room, President Trump was huddled with members of his cabinet, asking questions, finding the best way to share the answers with everyone, which is our job description, too. I keep coming back to that split screen, not because it was dramatic, but because it quietly proved no matter how complicated or tense the relationship is between the press and the presidency, what we share is far more important than anything else. And that is our duty to serve the American people. As our country continues to celebrate 250 years of its extraordinary story, this gathering is further proof that the American press endures with it.

[Jonathan Karl]

Through the perilous fight.

[Donald J. Trump]

The White House Correspondents Dinner was to be a night celebrating the First Amendment and 250 years of surviving, thriving, and overcoming our nation's many unthinkable challenges.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Welcome to the 2026 White House Correspondence Dinner.

[Donald J. Trump]

But that celebration was stopped by a single gunman in an apparent attempt to assassinate the President.

[Josh Dawsey]

I heard the loud bangs that were going off.

[Donald J. Trump]

It was extremely frightening.

[Jonathan Karl]

I was only a few feet away.

[Jackie Heinrich]

We were all told to just get under the tables.

[Diane Williams]

And at first, some of the White House officials did, too.

[Donald J. Trump]

A whole rush of people started to

[Oz Perlman]

come up towards the front door.

[Jackie Heinrich]

On a night when we are thinking about the freedoms in the First Amendment, we must also think about how fragile they are.

[Jonathan Karl]

And that was very unexpected.

[Donald J. Trump]

The President and the White House press corps proved resilient.

[Jonathan Karl]

This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way, it did.

[Donald J. Trump]

So we are together again tonight, proving our resolve and unyielding fortitude and to celebrate America at 250. Hello, from 1789. I'm James Madison. Yes, that James Madison. I wrote the First Amendment. At the time, we worried a king might control the press. Turns out you're now worried about tweets, algorithms, and people yelling on television. Let me clarify the rule. The government doesn't get to shut the press up. Not when it's wrong, not when it's annoying, and not when it's asking uncomfortable questions.

[Diane Williams]

The First Amendment and the freedom of the press. It is the foundation of our democracy. The freedom that we have to speak our mind, to share our views, share what we know. It's just so remarkable that we're able to question our world leaders, question the most powerful man in the world because of the First Amendment.

[Donald J. Trump]

As we mark the 250 50th anniversary of our birth, I'm hopeful that people

[Oz Perlman]

throughout the country will come together to discuss the importance of this history and to appreciate even more what our ancestors

[Donald J. Trump]

did to secure our liberty and freedoms,

[Oz Perlman]

including freedom of the press.

[Diane Williams]

Good afternoon, everybody.

[Jonathan Karl]

Well, I see we're trying a new experiment this morning.

[Donald J. Trump]

I hope it doesn't prove to be a disturbing image.

[Jonathan Karl]

Our goal is to try to rock the boat, and we're supported by the First Amendment. I hope Ike would be proud of

[Donald J. Trump]

us taking control of Iran's oil.

[Jonathan Karl]

We have a very vigorous group of people representing all different points of view, including a lot of the foreign press. I just told him I've got to come over and see the fake news. Let's go. The presidents throughout history have complained about how they're treated in the press. We don't stop the publication of any papers. We don't fine anyone for something they say. And that's okay. That's. That's part of the process.

[Melissa Young]

Why are you so confident he'll change

[Diane Williams]

his behavior, Mr. President?

[Oz Perlman]

Yeah, I'm not confident.

[Brian Bennett]

Change behavior.

[Donald J. Trump]

What the hell?

[Jonathan Karl]

What do you do?

[Donald J. Trump]

All.

[Jonathan Karl]

Did I say I was confident?

[Donald J. Trump]

I don't want to be back at

[Jonathan Karl]

the White House today. It's a young person's game, and I have great admiration for the reporters who. Who are there because they have a tougher job than I ever had. That's enough. Put down the mic. I must say today, folks, the reporters at the White House. My hat's off to you.

[Oz Perlman]

In.

[Donald J. Trump]

In.

[Jonathan Karl]

Go ahead, Peter. Go ahead.

[Donald J. Trump]

In Jim's defense, I've traveled. Whatever we face pushback from a politician or even from a president, it's not

[Caba Phillips]

about us as a journalist. It's about the person we're covering.

[Jonathan Karl]

Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either, so I understand, to be honest.

[Donald J. Trump]

So let me ask you a question, if I can. Our job is to just keep asking tough questions.

[Oz Perlman]

Our founders were often distraught about the

[Donald J. Trump]

press, the highly partisan media of their time.

[Oz Perlman]

Yet Jefferson famously championed a free press,

[Donald J. Trump]

noting that he preferred newspapers without a government to a government without newspapers.

[Wolf Blitzer]

That's right.

[Donald J. Trump]

I favored a free press while my predecessor here, John Adams, signed a sedition act that could imprison journalists for saying anything malicious against the government. I ended that unconstitutional law when I took office, and thankfully, it's never returned. Can't blame a guy for trying.

[Diane Williams]

So which is it? Are you winding this down?

[Tyler Pager]

Are you escalating?

[Jonathan Karl]

I can't tell you. Whenever there's a crisis, that's the time that people tune in.

[Donald J. Trump]

Thank you, Mr. President. Dan Reilly with CBS News.

[Jonathan Karl]

The effects of water can gate were beginning to corner President Richard Nixon. If the President thought you were going to ask a question he didn't want to ask, he would try to throw you off balance right at the beginning.

[Donald J. Trump]

Are you running for something?

[Weijia Jiang]

No, sir.

[Donald J. Trump]

Mr. President. Are you? Mr. President, in talking about the continuing recession, you have blamed mistakes of the past and you have blamed the Congress. Does any of the blame belong to you? Yes, because for many years I was a Democrat.

[Jonathan Karl]

Why did you really want to go to war?

[Diane Williams]

When we push them to answer questions on the record, they have an opportunity to explain their reasoning, explain their thinking, explain their goals.

[Donald J. Trump]

Can you tell the country, sir, why you are content with all the fanfare around this deal to leave the conscience of this nation and the strength of this nation unaccounted for in relation to these four Americans? The notion that I am content, major,

[Josh Dawsey]

that's nonsense and you should know better.

[Jonathan Karl]

Hello everybody. Have a good trip?

[Diane Williams]

Well, you can't fall asleep on Air

[Jackie Heinrich]

Force One because you never know when

[Diane Williams]

the president's gonna come back and take questions.

[Jonathan Karl]

It's gonna be a very long trip, right?

[Donald J. Trump]

Dan Compton, who's been with the President all day, is on on the phone from Nebraska on 9 11.

[Jackie Heinrich]

I was part of that small travel

[Diane Williams]

pool that the White House agreed to take on what was a ten hour odyssey. The president might be a target as well, and that is why he has come to as secure a place as he could. The White House made sure that we had phone connections and that we had access to the President.

[Donald J. Trump]

It worked exactly the way it should.

[Jackie Heinrich]

I dialed President Trump's number and he

[Diane Williams]

picked up just like anybody else.

[Donald J. Trump]

I just got off the phone with President Trump. It was a roughly nine minute phone interview.

[Wolf Blitzer]

I've covered five different presidents. I have never seen one other than Donald Trump, who regularly takes phone calls from reporters.

[Diane Williams]

New media is massively important to our country. Here's what you missed if you weren't tuned in. We utilize social media media to help people understand what we're talking about, breaking it down in digestible ways so that they can understand even the more nuanced news that's going on here at the White House. And today we went through the Rose Garden into the Oval Office. Every single outlet that's at the White House is shaping the national news. All of these outlets have a place here and all of our audiences deserve to know what's going on in our country. And in this White House,

[Donald J. Trump]

I don't,

[Jonathan Karl]

I don't think it's unusual for a president to be criticized.

[Donald J. Trump]

That seems to be one of the

[Jonathan Karl]

things that go with the job. As we look back over history, almost without exception, the better presidents at the end of their term have actually thanked the press in the spirit of, you had your job to do, I had my job to do, and that's the way the country comes together. Truth be told, in the greater scheme of things, you are, I hesitate to say this, more essential to that common

[Josh Dawsey]

pursuit than I am.

[Jonathan Karl]

And that's why freedom of the press is and must always be above politics.

[Donald J. Trump]

My friends would say, what is it

[Jonathan Karl]

like to deal with the press car?

[Donald J. Trump]

I said, these are just people that try to do the best they possibly can.

[Josh Dawsey]

You're not supposed to be sycophants.

[Donald J. Trump]

You're supposed to be skeptics. You're supposed to ask me tough questions

[Josh Dawsey]

and make sure that we are accountable

[Donald J. Trump]

to the people who sent us here. And you have done that.

[Diane Williams]

I wonder whether the Founding Fathers might look with delight at the kind of vibrant conversations that Americans today are having in the national media, in social media. It's a very vibrant conversation that has its roots 250 years ago.

[Donald J. Trump]

The noise you experience today, though at times overwhelming, is not necessarily a sign of decay. It may in part be the sound of liberty exercising itself somewhat chaotically.

[Jonathan Karl]

To be sure,

[Donald J. Trump]

the true danger lies not in a press that is too free, but in one that forgets why it was made free at all. Enjoy the rest of the evening and thanks for helping US reach 250 years of American democracy. Cheers. Cheers.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Thank you, Founders. What a powerful reminder. By the way, that was AI, in case you missed it. What a powerful reminder that generation after generation, White House correspondents have the privilege of writing the first draft of history. Serving as president of our association has been one of the great honors of my life. And as my final act, I was determined to carry out one more event to highlight the strength of our press corps. I am honored to preside over this dinner, but I do have a fact check because technically, my last day in office was last week. Our next chapter is in amazing hands with one of the fiercest women I have ever known. She is my wonderful friend, my partner in 2026, 2027, WHCA President Jackie Heinrich, who I've asked, Who I have asked to help present two very special awards. Jackie.

[Melissa Young]

Thank you, Ouija. And good evening, everyone. Before anything else, I want to recognize Weijia Jang for her leadership, her unwavering commitment to this press corps. Weija, you have really represented this association. With such professionalism. There we go. There we go. And she has. She has represented this association with such professionalism, integrity, grit. And I am so deeply grateful, not just for your example, but also more so for your friendship. And to our members, I am humbled that you've put your trust in me to lead the White House Correspondents association for the next year. And I look forward to working alongside all of you as we continue our shared mission, pursuing the facts without fear or favor and exercising the freedoms protected by the First Amendment in service of the American people. The attempt on President Trump's life last April was a sobering reminder that democracy is not immune to violence and the freedoms that we cherish can never be taken for granted. Political violence must have no home in America. And journalism can serve us well to broaden understanding, to shed light, and to inform our decisions, especially in this age of fast moving information that can reinforce our divisions. And we are grateful to have President Trump here tonight taking part in this tradition that recognizes the essential role of a free press in our democracy. Thank you, President Trump. The events of that night also revealed the resilience of this press corps, the all American sense of resolve that no act of intimidation will silence us, and the endurance of the First Amendment. And we're gathered here tonight because we believe that a free press always finds a way forward. And it is in that spirit that the WHCA Service Award was established to recognize exceptional service to this association. And it is fitting that one of the two awards that we are giving tonight goes to the staff of the Washington Hilton. They are hospitality professionals who always put service first. As harrowing events unfolded that night, their courage was on full display. The kitchen workers, the ballroom wait staff remained at their posts when President Trump urged that the evening should continue. They prepared to serve more than 26, 600 guests while they were still processing the shock alongside all of us. And when the Secret Service made the necessary call to postpone the remainder of the program, they immediately pivoted, preserving every unserved meal and donating them to local shelters. And many of these dedicated professionals have worked dozens of White House correspondence dinners since this event first moved to the Washington Hilton in 1968. And 58 years later, we are deeply grateful for their partnership. We are proud of the history that we've built together. And we are excited to return to the Washington Hilton next year, stronger than ever. Please welcome the Washington Hiltons General manager Ken Jarka and catering manager Karen Faquetis. To accept the WHCA President's Award for Exceptional Service on behalf of the entire Washington Hilton team.

[Donald J. Trump]

Sam,

[Jackie Heinrich]

Congratulations and thank you, Jackie. I also want to thank the staff and security team right here at the Waldorf Astoria for putting so much time. And care into helping us plan this event in a very short notice. That evening in April did not unfold as planned, but it ended exactly like it was supposed to. 2,600 guests, plus hundreds of others who were working that night, got to go home unharmed. And that was made possible by the brave men and women of law enforcement and the United States Secret Service. On behalf of every person who was inside that ballroom and every family who got to hear their loved ones say, don't worry, I'm okay. We thank you. One officer placed himself directly in harm's way and engaged the armed suspect. Even after gunfire struck his protective vest, he stayed in the fight, and the attacker was stopped. I know many of us have wondered, what if he hadn't acted in that exact way? What if he had waited a few more seconds? His courage that night reflects the core values of the Secret Service. Duty, justice, courage, honesty and loyalty. And as a commitment to safeguarding his country and community. They also shaped his career. First as an infantryman and section leader in the United States Marine Corps, and since 2022, as an officer of the Secret Service, protecting the White House complex and our nation's leaders. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present the WHCA President's Award for a Exceptional Service to Officer Victor Gonzalez of the United States Secret Service. Thank you again, Officer Gonzalez. And to all the law enforcement officials who work around the clock to keep us safe. Democracy is defended in many ways, sometimes with a badge, sometimes with a notebook and a deadline. The White House Correspondents association started as a group of 50 reporters, and I am proud that our membership hit a record number in 2025. More than 1,000 people, including many from new media outlets. Our press corps covers the presidency at all hours of the day. In their personal lives, they miss out on a lot so that the world doesn't have to. If you are a past WHCA president here tonight, please stand. Former board members, please stand. Our chief White House correspondents, please stand. All current White House correspondents, reporters, producers, photographers, visual and audio journalists, please stand. And tonight, I also want to salute our colleagues in the Pentagon press corps. Your work is invaluable, especially as our nation is at war. Please stand. And now we turn our attention to future White House correspondents. Our incredible scholarship award Winners, please welcome our Scholarship Committee Chair who also serves as the WHCA Secretary, Brian Bennett of Ms. Now.

[Brian Bennett]

Hello everybody. It means so much to be back together tonight. This is the part of the dinner each year that I look forward to the most. We have an incredible group of young journalists with us who are the recipients of this year's White House Correspondence association scholarships. Since 1991, the WHCA has awarded scholarships to hundreds of journalism students. This year we are helping fund the education of 30. Pull out my remarks here. 30 students from 16 colleges and universities. They are from schools all over the country. Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C. we have important partners who extend the reach of our giving and you all are a part of that. The WHCA and our partners went to great lengths to make sure as many of our scholars as possible could be here tonight with us. And I'm happy to say that 26 out of the 30 of them were able to return for the second dinner. Some came back to D.C. from far away. Many were already here in Washington for the summer for journalism internships when the April dinner was interrupted by the shooting. A lot of the scholars did what journalists do in dangerous situations. They started reporting and they reported for their college newspapers. They are already showing their commitment to the work that we are all here to celebrate. Our dinner is the primary fundraiser for our association and our scholarships. And because of that generosity, we were able to increase the amount of several scholarships this year. Thank you for being a part of this and supporting this work. And we also want to say thanks to the America 250 Commission for your generous donation to our scholarship fund. The scholars not only received financial help to pay for school, earlier this year, they had a tour of the White House and they met with White House officials. They spent an afternoon with dozens of senior journalists who cover the White House. And they were paired with mentors, working journalists from the White House Correspondents association who make a year long commitment to offer advice and encouragement. We all had people along the way who helped make us better. And the WHCA scholarship program is a way that our association gives back and helps strengthen a new generation of journalists. Because of the commitment and your support, past WHCA scholarship recipients are now doing amazing things in journalism. We tracked some of them down to tell us about their work today.

[Diane Williams]

Being a White House Correspondence association scholar

[Jackie Heinrich]

opened up a new world for me.

[Diane Williams]

Being a scholar meant that I could have the financial freedom to do what I wanted.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Being a WHCA SCHOLAR gave me access to so many mentors in a world of opportunities, opportunities here in Washington, D.C.

[Diane Williams]

it gave me the chance to connect

[Melissa Young]

with other journalists, other members of the association.

[Diane Williams]

Journalism is important and especially here at the White House where every day, every hour, every minute even matters. The decisions that are made here impact people across the country and around the world. The idea that you get to be a part of the first draft of history, it all, all is extremely inspiring and drives me as a journalist. There are so many pinch me moments covering the White House, watching world leaders arrive here, walking into the press briefing room, getting to see Marine One land on the South Lawn and getting to ask the President of the United States a question directly. Being selected as a White House Correspondence Association Scholar has played a huge role in my career.

[Jackie Heinrich]

I was there as president by and

[Diane Williams]

gave a toast to the freedom of the press and also as Kim Kardashian

[Jackie Heinrich]

strutted across the Runway and posed for pictures among a room full of talented journalists.

[Diane Williams]

The stars, the outfits, the photographs. And I remember too, that was the year that Brittney Griner had just returned home. And so being able to see her was really emotional. I was also inspired looking around at all the different scholars and how excited they were. And I think their excitement influenced my excitement about it. It really was an eye opening experience about, you know, just how important this role is. This White House press corps is not a mythical world. It exists and it is something that I can aspire to be a part of and I owe a lot of credit to the WHCA for getting me here. So many journalists involved in this organization were willing to chat with me, to invest in me, and it's a cycle because of what they were able to pass on. I hope that I can play a role in doing that for the next generation as well.

[Brian Bennett]

I can tell you this year's scholarship recipients are also really impressive. And they're all sitting right over there. Let's meet them. Please stand. As I read your name from american university, louisa clausen from arizona state university, george headley, elisa horton and kyle sakinski. From hampton university, kristin flewellen and jade abubakr. From howard university, tatiana allen and madison maynard and sanyu lakoma from iowa state university, eric anderson from northwestern university, jacques abu rizzic, caitlin bender thomas samantha freeman from iowa university, nyla gilbert, aiden ryan, emily stokes from princeton university, ina marcelo from sagrado corazon university in puerto rico, ianna sotovalle from syracuse university, ben basick from the university of california, berkeley, hayoon cho from the university of kansas, julia hanson. From the university of maryland, laura charleston. Lillian gray. Dana matthews. Ashley nehra. From the university of missouri, callie fowler. Tyler kirwan. Fletcher mantooth. And from the university of tennessee, abigail fanning. Congratulations, scholars. Please be seated. There's one more scholarship that requires special attention. This year we've added a new scholarship at New York University that has been named in honor of the legendary CBS News White House correspondent, Mark Noeller. As you all know, Mark passed away in August. And if you needed to know how many times the president had been to Camp David or went on vacation or played golf, Mark Noler always had the facts, and he was always willing to share. To remember Mark and to commemorate the new WHCA scholarship at his alma mater, nyu, here is a tribute put together by his friend and CBS News chief correspondent Major Garrett.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm Mark Noeller, CBS News. And you could say that I'm kind of the CBS News numbers man at the White House. You could say that, but that's less than half the story.

[Oz Perlman]

Can you justify your role?

[Donald J. Trump]

Mark did keep a log of presidential actions. Everything from speeches and press conferences to vacations and foreign trips. By my count, President Obama had 65 domestic trips in 2010, spanning 104 days. Knoller's numbers were so precise, White House aides used them to backfill or correct their own records. Historians and journalists came to rely on Knoller's database, which he never hoarded, always share.

[Oz Perlman]

Mark Knoller.

[Josh Dawsey]

Mark Noller.

[Donald J. Trump]

Knoller considered that database the heartbeat of the presidency. To understand and cover a president, you had to know and remember all of a president's actions. President Obama does like to play golf. Since taking office, he has played golf 57 times. I'll be glad to answer a couple of questions. Mark Noller, are you with us?

[Weijia Jiang]

You bet.

[Donald J. Trump]

Those who watched Knoller work were left in awe. Every White House reporter logs long hours. None logged as many as Knoller. I'm one of those lucky people that gets to work at something he loves doing. And so I really don't feel as

[Jonathan Karl]

though I'm sacrificing anything, spending long days here.

[Donald J. Trump]

Prolific and accurate reporting Mark Knoller's hallmarks, which served the presidency and the nation well.

[Brian Bennett]

We are honored to be able to add a new scholarship in Mark's name in partnership with NYU's Arthur L. Clark Journalism Institute, and even more happy to announce that the first recipient of the Mark Noller Scholarship is Avril Silva. Please stand. Avril. Ladies and gentlemen, this year's WHCA scholarship students, when you see them tonight, offer them advice and offer them jobs. Many of them are already doing amazing journalism. They're all superstars. Thank you very much.

[Donald J. Trump]

Please welcome the chief correspondent for ABC News, the CO anchor of ABC's this Week, and a former president of the White House Correspondents Association, Jonathan Karl.

[Melissa Young]

Not quite yet, actually. Sorry about that, John. You're going to have to wait a second. We have a lot to celebrate this evening, everyone. We want to give a special thanks to those who value the work that we do, the freedoms that we stand for, including Paramount, the Emerson Collective and the Knight Foundation. All of them made donations to the WHCA after our April dinner was interrupted. And it is, by the way, our one fundraiser of the year. Their support will help our scholarship programs and our general operations in the next year. Thank you all very much. All right. Now it is my pleasure to introduce two former White House correspondents who have served this association with distinction. They exemplify excellence in our field. They will help us recognize tonight's award winners. Jonathan Karl is the chief White House, or, excuse me, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News. He is the co anchor of this Week, and he is a former president of the WHCA. He's got over three decades of experience in Washington. He's covered four presidents, 14 press secretaries, and just about every major beat in the city. And through it, he has earned many of journalism, journalism's highest honors, including some of the very awards that we are presenting tonight. But first, to recognize our journalism awards, we have one of the country's defining voices with us tonight, Wolf Blitzer. Wolf is CNN's lead political anchor. He's the host of the Situation Room, and he's been a staple of CNN's political coverage since 1990, earning a reputation for steady, authoritative reporting on some of the most consequential moments in modern history, and earning multiple Emmy awards himself for his distinguished career. Please welcome me in joining Wolf to the stage.

[Josh Dawsey]

I'm standing up. Thank you very much for that really nice introduction. I'm so grateful. I'm so honored to be with all of you this evening. Each year, a panel of independent judges review dozens of entries for the five major WACA journalism awards. And it's my honor tonight to announce this year's winners. And I'd like to point out that this is really a special night for me. I don't know if many of you were at the first White House Correspondents association dinner in April, but it was for me, it was very memorable. Indeed. And I can report this time. After the first chorus, I did not go to the men's room. I've been to this dinner over these many, many years. I spent seven years as a White House correspondent. And I just want to remember with real excitement and passion who often came with me to these dinners over these many years. And that was the man who hired me at cnn, the man who created cnn, the late Ted Turner, who recently passed away. And he was not only a mentor and a good friend, but he loved, loved journalism. When he hired me, he said, remember, Wolf, we're the cable news news Capital N, Capital E, Capital W, Capital S network. This is where the news comes first. And don't forget that. Forget about your own personal opinions. Just report the news fairly and accurately. And if you can, do it first. And that's what I've been trying to do over all of these years. So let's remember Ted Turner, what he did for not just for cnn, but for CNN and all of the news organizations over these many, many years. The Aldo Beckman Award for Overall excellence in White House Coverage, named for the late Chicago Tribune correspondent and former association president. Aldo Beckman goes to. And let's give him a big round of applause. Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal. The judges said, Josh Dossey shows us how power works inside the presidency. And over the past year, his reporting has revealed how decisions are made, who influences them, and how power is exercised at the highest levels. Josh Dossey went far beyond the deluge of breaking news to offer invaluable insights that can only result from deeply sourced enterprise reporting. In the tradition of Aldo Beckman, he exemplifies integrity, persistence, and a steadfast commitment to holding power to account. Ladies and gentlemen, the WHCA is pleased to give the Aldo Beckman Award to Josh Dawsey. Let's continue with the awards. Thank you. The WHCA gives out two awards for reporting under deadline pressure, one for print, and one for broadcast. This year's print winner is Amer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press. When sources leaked that Trump administration officials were attempting to purge the National Security Council of staff deemed not sufficiently aligned with the president's agenda, Madhani and Miller quickly moved to verify the claim. They uncovered an unprecedented vetting process. NSC staffers were asked about their past political contributions, voting records and social media posts as a gauge of loyalty to the president. Ultimately, more than 150 NSC aides were removed, resulting in the loss of considerable foreign policy expertise. The story that Madhani and Miller produced is as consequential as it is revelatory. Please welcome Zeke Miller accepting the award on behalf of the team. Now the Broadcast Award for Excellence under Deadline pressure. And this year's winner is my colleague and very good friend, Caitlin Collins of cnn. Reporting by CNN's Kaitlin Collins on a historic showdown in the Oval Office between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky launched a memorable day of non stop insight and analysis, including her exclusive interview with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Judges were awed by the depth of knowledge, access and context that Caitlin brought to coverage of a meeting that unraveled before the world's eyes. The WHCA is pleased to honor the deadline reporting of CNN's Kaitlin Collins. Let's give Caitlin another big round of applause. And now the award for excellence in presidential news coverage by Visual Visual journalists. This award recognizes a video or photojournalist for covering the presidency at the White House or in the field. And this year's award goes to. Andrew Harnick of Getty Images. He captured the moment an Oval Office visitor collapsed during an event. And from the judges, they say this through sharp timing, layered composition and visual irony. This photograph expertly documents a true split screen moment in real time. The president's orientation and posture inadvertently echo the statue to his right, while the other half of the frame is defined by movement. A truly striking image of contrast skillfully captured in a chaotic moment. Please join me in congratulating Getty Images photographer Andrew Harnick, who also represents still photographers on the WHCA board. There are more. And now the Kathryn Graham Award for Courage and Accountability, named for the legendary Washington Post publisher. And it comes with a prize of $10,000. This year's award goes to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal's courageous reporting on President Trump's past relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein triggered the release of the so called Epstein Files, thousands of documents that might otherwise have remained hidden from the public. And despite the president's threat of a lawsuit, the Journal published a story about a provocative letter to Epstein bearing President Trump's signature. Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Journal, revealing reporter Khadija Safdar's home address. Her family had to be relocated. The Journal was kicked off of Air Force One. But the reporters continue to file revelatory stories. Please welcome the winners of the Kathryn Graham Award from the Wall Street Journal. Khadijah Safdar, Sadie German, Annie Linsky, Josh Dawsey. Again, Alex Leary, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Ryan Barber. Their colleague Joe Talizzolo could not. Out of 10 tonight,

[Donald J. Trump]

Sa.

[Josh Dawsey]

The Collier Prize for State government Accountability is presented by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. And this is the award's seventh year at dinner, and it comes with a check for $25,000. That's a lot of money. This year's award goes to Care11 in Minneapolis for its investigation Housing Hustle. The investigation exposed a massive organized fraud scheme within Minnesota's Housing Stabilization Services Program, a Medicaid funded safety net meant to help people with disabilities and those facing homelessness find and keep housing. Reporter A.J. legault uncovered ethical and oversight breaches at the highest levels. The investigation drove sweeping state reforms and waves of federal probes and charges, said one Collier juror, Carol Evans. Rigorous and piercing investigation of Medicare fraud had undeniable impact, including the suspension of more than 130 companies from the ability to bill Medicaid, the state terminating the HSS program, the firing of the state official in charge, federal raids, subpoenas, indictments and convictions, and enhanced screening, oversight and suspension powers for regulators. Here to accept the award from Care11, our reporter AJ Legault and producer Gary Knox. The center for Integrity and News Reporting award honors the most fair, impartial, objective news reporting by a member of the WHCA that has the courage to not fear and the discipline to not favor. It's sponsored and administered by the Arkansas based Center for Integrity and News Reporting and comes with a prize of $25,000. The award goes to Tyler Pager of the New York Times. The judges said that it is coverage of the first year of President Trump's second term. Pager demonstrates a disciplined, even handed approach across a wide range of subjects, including supporters and donors, foreign policy, the Justice Department, and energy. The stories take readers inside consequential presidential decisions while presenting the facts. The work is deeply sourced and carefully verified, reflecting a clear dedication to getting it right without bias. Taken together, this body of work stands as a strong example of fair, impartial and objective journalism. Precisely the standard this award is intended to honor. Let's hear it one more time for this year's winners. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much.

[Jonathan Karl]

But before we do that,

[Donald J. Trump]

Let's give

[Josh Dawsey]

him another huge round of applause. It's now my pleasure to introduce my good friend, longtime colleague Jonathan Karl.

[Wolf Blitzer]

All right, final award of the evening. It is a high honor to present the award created to recognize the fierce and fair women who cover the White House every day. But first, I just want to give a big thank you to Weijiajiang Weijia. Your leadership was steady when steadiness was in short supply. You refused to let an act of violence take this dinner away from us. And because of you, it has gone on. You insisted that happen. Thank you. Awesome. Courageous. And, Mr. President, I want to say it matters that you came here tonight.

[Susan Walsh]

Thank you.

[Wolf Blitzer]

For more than more than 100 years, presidents have chosen to sit in a room of reporters who ask tough and often uncomfortable questions and who report without fear or favor. It's important.

[Donald J. Trump]

Thank you for being here.

[Wolf Blitzer]

And in that spirit, I am thrilled to present award named after two women who didn't just cover history, they helped make it. In 1947, a woman joined the White House press corps and changed it forever. Her name was Alice Dunnigan. She was the first African American woman ever credentialed at the White House. And just a few years later, she was joined by Ethel Payne. And together, they looked the most powerful man in the world in the eye and demanded answers about civil rights for black Americans. President Eisenhower didn't always welcome those questions, but Alice and Ethel kept going and kept showing up, and they kept asking. The WHCA Donegan Payne Award for Lifetime Achievement exists to honor their legacy and to recognize journalists who followed in their footsteps by breaking barriers for future generations. So tonight, it is a privilege to present the award to two women who did exactly that. In a field long dominated by men, Melissa Young and Susan Walsh each built extraordinary careers as photojournalists, not by waiting for doors to be open, but by bursting through them again and again for decades. Melissa Young. This one I knew very well. She worked at ABC News for 44 years. She began in local television in Miami and worked her way to Capitol Hill in the White House, where she was one of the first female photojournalists in the press corps. Melissa documented the presidencies from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. She covered campaigns, secretaries of state and defense. She reported in disaster zones, war zones all around the world. I worked side by side with Melissa for about half of those years, and I traveled to more than a dozen countries with her. I'm not going to mention the time I was briefly detained, because that was on Capitol Hill, and she came to my rescue. That kind of person. True, she's tireless and professional and a lot of fun to be around. She did it all with persistence, resilience, and quiet determination. Retiring just last year, Susan Walsh. Her career was built on anything but luck. When a promised job fell through after a college internship, she called the AP's Boston bureau every single day for three weeks, just saying, give me a shot, will you? Well, finally they did just that. She came in, she said yes to every assignment. She worked her way up. She got to cover super bowls, Boston Marathons, five Olympic Games. She transferred to Washington in 1997, and from there she went on to photograph every US President from Jimmy Carter to President Trump, traveling the world as part of the White House press Corps. In 1999, she was part of the AP team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for her coverage of President Clinton's impeachment. She also served as the White House News Photographers association, fighting for press access at every turn. Susan also retired just last year and traded the briefing room in for the ice rink where she now plays hockey with her son. She's pretty good. Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne showed us what it looks like to refuse to be pushed aside so that they could keep bearing witness to what matters most. Melissa Young and Susan Walsh spent their careers doing exactly that. Two women, 80 years of combined service, and a legacy that honors everything this award stands for.

[Susan Walsh]

My job gave me purpose.

[Donald J. Trump]

I had a lot of fun.

[Susan Walsh]

I saw myself as part of the world, that I was doing something that the world needs.

[Diane Williams]

I was always really excited to be in the room, see it, be a part of it. It kind of gave me the access and the confidence to go up to people and look into other people's worlds.

[Susan Walsh]

The camera definitely made me fearless, especially when I was doing news and traveling internationally. You had to be aggressive, and that's when I had to be someone who I wasn't really sure I recognized all the time.

[Diane Williams]

Eight inaugurations, five Olympics, six Super Bowls, World Series, lots of sporting events. APEX summits, NATO summits.

[Susan Walsh]

You traveled in a way you would never do as a regular person. I remember being in the palace with Fidel Castro and Jesse Jackson, and I was just walking around and, you know, those like, sort of going, well, you know, here I am.

[Diane Williams]

One of the craziest, wildest ones that I'll always remember is when I was with President Trump at the dmz, I swear, there were times that I don't think my feet hit the ground as we were being moved. And it was such a chaotic, crazy thing.

[Susan Walsh]

Nine, 11 happened. And that just completely changed my life. That's when different kind of travel started for me. When they asked me to go with President Bush to Iraq, there I was. And some. An Iraqi journalist stood up in front of me, literally in front of me, and threw a shoe. Secret Service jumped on him. I was right behind him. I remember Trying to hold onto my tripod so I can keep shooting. And then when it was finally over, they rushed us into a room to do an interview with the President. I think I started to see that what I did was really important.

[Diane Williams]

I was traveling overseas with Jill Biden and we slowly went into Ukraine. Get the picture of First Lady Biden meeting Mrs. Zelensky. And for all of the. I love you guys, my writer friends, but for all you writer friends who didn't want to give me a spot in the van, my picture ended up on the front page everywhere. And your stories got bumped inside.

[Susan Walsh]

Sorry. I hope there are more women that will follow through on this, especially in television, because it really is a great job.

[Diane Williams]

It was always such a compliment to be considered one of the boys, one of the guys. And now that I'm older and there's many more women doing this job, I'm like, you know what? We're going to claim our space. You guys can be one of the girls because we got this. Yeah, we got this.

[Donald J. Trump]

All right.

[Wolf Blitzer]

Please join me in welcoming Susan and Melissa to the stage.

[Donald J. Trump]

It.

[Diane Williams]

Can I say this is pretty awesome. I spent most of my career down in there, so I thank all the photographers and the photojournalists who had to cover this event. So it's really pretty cool to be up here and just kind of be a guest tonight. But they were gracious enough to give me an opportunity to say some things. So I'd like to say some things first. Weija, Jackie and the entire Correspondence Board, I just want to thank you guys so much for selecting me this year. Me and Melissa. I hope not to get emotional here. This award means, like the world to me. Oh, I'm such a sucker. Sorry. I got this. I got this. This award, the award means so much. Not because it's named for two incredible, trailblazing women, but because, honestly, I felt that this association didn't always, you know, value what we did as photographers. And, you know, there were many times that Melissa and I were the only two women in the White House travel pool. And I just have to say, things have changed and I love it. So there's a whole lot more women out there. So. Yeah. And I do have a couple of shout outs. I have to thank the Associated Press for giving a chance. Woo. Giving a chance to a young photographer, oh, so many years ago. I truly hope I made you proud. To my son, Johnny.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh, gosh.

[Diane Williams]

I practiced this and I wasn't. I was.

[Melissa Young]

Okay.

[Diane Williams]

To my son Johnny, who's here tonight. Thank you for Putting up with your mom's crazy work schedule.

[Donald J. Trump]

I love you.

[Diane Williams]

And to, yes, And to all my friends and colleagues that I've traveled the world with. Your camaraderie, your support, and most importantly, your laughs have been absolutely the best. And in my retirement, I absolutely miss that the most. So thank you for all of that. And then finally to all the journalists out there who are working incredibly hard to report the truth, despite access issues, insults and subpoenas, keep it up. Your work matters, and we need you now more than ever. Thank you so much for all you do.

[Susan Walsh]

ABC has been breaking barriers since its start. Innovation is in our DNA. And being part of this work has always been my goal. Although this sounds simple, to achieve this, I've always had to fight. I'd fight to go places where they didn't send women. I'd fight to disasters in war zones. I'd fight to be part of the White House travel pool covering seven presidents. I'd fight to do an Oval Office address. And on a personal level, I'd fight to have a family while keeping my 247 job. Thank you to the White House Correspondents association for recognizing me, the first female broadcast camera person, for this honor. I am so proud to receive this award for a lifetime of breaking barriers. I've been fighting for 44 years to be the best at capturing all the action at the White House since Ronald Reagan. My advice? Keep up the good fight and tear down those walls. Thank.

[Diane Williams]

You.

[Oz Perlman]

You.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Congratulations again to all of our honorees tonight. I am confident that one day our scholarship winners could be the ones taking home awards. After all, not that long ago, we were you young people, passionate about journalism and determined to make it work. I've been thinking a lot about my own journey to this podium tonight. I grew up in rural West Virginia, in a town at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, a town called Buchanan, population 5,500. Those images of the devastating floods that you've been seeing are from my hometown. My heart, thoughts and prayers are with everybody there. After my dad finished grad school at wvu, where he properly learned how to say, let's go, Mountaineers, my parents decided to stay in the state to open a restaurant. It was such a treat when hunters came in and left deer meat as a tip. On Sundays after church, families packed into the dining room all dressed up. My mom learned every customer's name, their favorite dishes. I worked the cash register, topped off glasses of sweet tea and did my homework in the corner booth. A day like that seemed ordinary at the time, looking back. To think that days like that could be considered ordinary is the most powerful reminder of how extraordinary America is. My dad came to the US as a student with just 67 bucks, or as Frankie might say, 6, 7. My mom holding a small suitcase in one hand and a toddler, me with the other. Yet they built a new life, a successful business, and a real future. Our Chinese restaurant was the first in my town. Of those 5,500 residents, the Chinese American population of Buchanan was 3. My mom, my dad and me. Growing up there was not always easy. Most folks had never laid eyes on people who looked like my family. But far more often than not, the community was welcoming and generous. Turns out, deer meat is great in a stir fry. In Mandarin, the word for America is me. It literally means beautiful country. And I love that America the Beautiful was never only about her landscapes or landmarks. It has always been about the promise that no matter where you come from, you get a shot at chasing your dreams. My dreams began right there in that family restaurant. A small TV in the back was often turned to the news my dad's go to for learning more English. In the middle of dinner service. It was the CBS Evening News, anchored by Dan Rather and Connie Chung. I was hooked. In middle school, I won a contest to be a student reporter for a national news show called Channel One. And when a local news crew came to cover it, they learned just how big my dream really were. I hope to be the next Connie Chung and better. That's kind of hard, but that's my goal. And so I'm going to work very hard at trying to be a broadcast journalist. Thirty years later, it's surreal to say that I've sat in Connie Chung's old chair to fill in on the evening news. And Connie and I have talked about how the White House beat. And the White House Correspondents association used to be a little bit of a boys club. For decades, women could be members, but they were not invited to sit at this dinner until 1962, when a woman who would become dean of the press corps insisted. Thank you, Mrs. Helen Thomas. So tonight, it means everything to stand here as the first woman of color ever elected president of this association in its 112 year history. I'm here because of the tenacious women who came before me. Melissa, Susan. And support from my family who are with us tonight. My husband Luther, not from West Virginia, but Arkansas. Similar enough. My amazing daughter Frankie. Little brother Jack, who should be sleeping by now. I love you more than anything in the world. I love you the most My parents came to a country with almost nothing to give their daughter everything. And now I have that because they could be with me in this moment. Mama Baba Xia Xie. And sitting with them, my middle school video production teacher, Mrs. Diane Williams, who spent countless hours on my submission for that contest that changed my life. Like public school teachers across the United States, Mrs. Williams looked at a 13 year old kid and said, you can be whatever you want when you grow up. And she meant it. My story is like that of so many in this room and in this country. Only in America. Only in America could a little girl born in China and raised in Appalachian coal country make her way to the Oval Office to ask questions of the President of the United States. Because when this is your home, you inherit something remarkable. The protections in the First Amendment. Free religion, free speech, free press, free assembly, free petition. This fundamental right belongs to everyone. And that's exactly who the founders were thinking about when they protected a free press. Everyone, all Americans. They were not thinking about reporters. A free press is not a favor to journalists because we're special. We are not special. But America is, no matter who you are. The freedom to criticize without fear of being destroyed, that's not a bug in our democracy. It's supposed to be the feature. In 1786, writing from Paris, Thomas Jefferson told his friend back in Virginia, our Liberty Day depends on the freedom of the press. And that cannot be limited without being lost. Five years later, that thought was enshrined in the Constitution after Jefferson urged James Madison to include a Bill of Rights. Many founders couldn't stand the press. Some things never change. But they understood if our access is restricted, it's really the people's access to information that is limited. If the media faces government pressure or censorship, it's the people who end up knowing less. That was true then and it's true now. But having press freedom comes with a tremendous responsibility. We can't demand accountability without practicing it. Criticism of the media can be unfair. It can also be legitimate. We get a lot right, but sometimes we get things wrong. We mistake proximity to power for understanding it. And at times we get trapped in our own bubbles. There is a difference, though, an existential difference, between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it. One is healthy and it makes all of us better. The other is exactly what the founders hoped to prevent. Around the world, press freedom is not guaranteed. In many countries, reporters who criticize the government are detained without trial, their stories erased. In the worst cases, they never make it home. Tonight, we think about all of them. And we think about the protections that set us apart as a nation. Just 20 days ago, America turned 250 years old. The first amendment is a big part of how she made it this far. And it falls on all of us to make sure it carries her through to the next 250 and beyond. President Trump, I've covered you for a long time and so have many reporters in this room. When we ask questions, you push back. You give us answers and we push back. You have always been a deal guy. Well, that's the deal. And the First Amendment is a done deal. And that's what we toast tonight. The freedoms that brought us back together, even after they were threatened. So let's raise a glass to what makes ours a beautiful country. And now, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the 45th and 47th President of the United States, President Donald J. Trump,

[Donald J. Trump]

Next to you. And defend her still today.

[Jonathan Karl]

Cause there ain't no doubt.

[Donald J. Trump]

I love this land.

[Jonathan Karl]

God bless the usa. Wow. That was very beautiful. But this has not been an easy evening. All these awards. Do I have a say in those awards? All those awards. But it's great to be back at a place that I know very well because they built it. And I'm very proud of it because I built it for $2.9 billion less than the Federal Reserve Building, which is a lot smaller, by the way. Figure that one out. But I am delighted to be here at the White House Correspondence Dinner. Amazing people, a lot of people that I like. Some I don't like it all, but I respect most of them. I must say that you do a great job, amazing job, and it's an honor. As I said three months ago, the show must go on. We were back, we were backstage, and we both wanted to just have it go on. Whether it was 2 o', clock, 3 o' clock in the morning, it didn't matter. But in the end, it made more sense to do it the way we're doing it. And we had a great news conference at the White House in a very important room. And you did very well. I think we all did very well. It was a hell of an evening. I can tell you, that won't soon be forgotten. And I think a lot was learned from that evening. A tremendous amount was learned about security and about other things, the dangers of what we all do. But just like my presidency, the second time is always better. It's always better. And the third time will be better yet. I'm only kidding. From the earliest moments after the attack, on our dinner last April, I knew we had to reschedule this event as soon as possible. We had to do it very quickly, and we met very quickly, and we figured something out. But the attempted mass murder at the Washington Hilton, that's what it could have been, was an assault on our democracy itself. Very serious situation. Many of you were there with me, and some showed extreme bravery, like Pete Hegseth, Steve Miller, Tom Holman. Really, they were standing on tables, and most of you were under the tables. Okay. But they did. They showed. I saw every one of them that was standing up in those tables. I didn't know if they were brave, if they were smart, if they were stupid as hell, but they were on those tables in some cases. And there were a lot of different feelings going on in the room at that moment. But after hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, get down. Get down. Which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking. Do you believe it? Get down. She's the only one that really understood what that meant. It's quite an evening, but tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve. And every one of us 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. So 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. We can't let that ever happen. There are a lot of very dangerous people out there. We can't let it happen. I want to begin by expressing our gratitude to the incredible men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect my family and myself, all presidents and lots of others. That's the United States Secret Service. So I appreciate it very much. And Sean and the whole group. Amazing job. Amazing job. In recent months, they've repeatedly responded to threats with speed and professionalism and extraordinary courage. And there is no better example of that than Officer Victor Gonzalez, who we just met. It was amazing. What he did was amazing. When the would be assassin charged the checkpoint at speed, he was fast. You know, when you looked at that, you had to look at it about 10 times before you really saw what was going on. He was quick, nasty. The gun made him nasty, actually. But Officer Gonzalez engaged the attacker without hesitation and took a bullet to the chest after his ballistic vest, fortunately, was on, saved his life. And Victor did not even want to go to the hospital for a Checkup. We insisted. Really. We wanted him to do it. We insisted, but he didn't want to go. So, too, Officer Gonzalez, Secret Service, Metropolitan Police, law enforcement generally, and even all of the militaries around us in the room tonight, we salute you and we thank you with all of our hearts. Thank you very much. Great job.

[Josh Dawsey]

Great job.

[Jonathan Karl]

Great job. These are great people. So this evening, we're picking up right where we left off. So let's have a little bit of fun. You know, I said, what do we do here? They. 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. I know one thing I could never have done, the speech that I had ready just a short while. Oh, that was going to be a doozy. I was so psyched. I was going to rip people and I don't know, just something changed. It's really for the better, but I just wouldn't want to do that. But we'll do a little ripping, if you don't mind. But it is true. I said, how do we handle. This is going to be a different kind of an evening. And it is. And in many ways, it's a more beautiful evening. Actually, everyone's looking really good tonight. And I know it was not easy finding shoes to go along with your bulletproof vest, which many people didn't want to wear because they'd rather die. That look 20 pounds heavier. You know that, right? We have that a lot. They put a. They put one on me. I said, are you sure I'm not wearing this? No, you gain. You look exactly 20. They say, sir, it's about 21 pounds. They said, not good. But I want to thank the outgoing president of the White House Correspondence Dinner Association. Now, she won't admit it and she should not admit it, but. But we sort of became friendly. You know, in times of stress, on occasion, you become friendly. I have a lot of respect for Ouija, and I tell you, we went through a little bit of a war together. It turned out pretty good. It turned out pretty good because of a lot of good people. They stopped a tragedy. So I want to thank you very much. Fantastic. And we worked extremely hard to ensure this dinner was rescheduled. And we run a. Just thank her family. I just met her parents, her children, her husband. What a perfect family. So it's really great. Thank you very much. All for putting up with this. For putting up with this. Right. But let me also thank the incoming president of the Correspondent Association. Jackie Heinrich, she can be very tough as a reporter, I will tell you. She can be nasty. She looks so beautiful, but she can be so nasty. How could that happen? But she just got married to a very successful congressman. Very good congressman. I'd like to have a couple of more votes for him, but that's okay. On occasion, he chose a little independence. We don't like that. But now he's a very professional guy, and he's very. He loves our country.

[Donald J. Trump]

Country.

[Jonathan Karl]

But that's a big thing. I just see what takes place. We're talking about what takes place to be in the position that you're leaving and that Jackie is coming into. And it's a lot of work, a lot of friendships, a lot of talent. And so, Jackie, congratulations. And congratulations are also in order for our favorite Weisshead White House press secretary Caroline Levitt, who just had her second child. You and your husband. She's great. She's done a fantastic job. We all love her. She's done a fantastic job. She's another one. She could be nasty, but sometimes she has no choice, right? But Caroline may have one of the hardest jobs in the White House. She has to deal with all of you all of the time. And you can be very difficult. You can be very, very difficult people. But I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive sometimes. I really do think that some of you don't like me. In fact, I read a report, I get 93% negative publicity. 93. So how the hell did I win the election by so much. Think of it. I don't think that's true. I can't believe it's 93. In the 80s, maybe, but not 90. But this place is the really the largest group of Trump Derangement Syndrome people ever put together at one time. I suspect some of you are lucky that our last dinner was cut short because I had brought with me what would possibly have been. I'm telling you, I had. I had something. I was going to go after you. I was going to. I feel so badly doing this. It's got to be such a letdown. Oh, yay.

[Oz Perlman]

Yay.

[Jonathan Karl]

But your lives were really in danger the last time for an opposite reason. But on the plus side, your careers were saved. And we have a. We really do. We have a complete and total. You know, I love the words complete and total, they say, but it means almost the same thing. I said, it doesn't matter when you say it. It's called emphasis. It's called emphasis. But everyone is now really warming up the New White House military center drone port, highly protected ballroom. It's. We have our ballroom. The windows are this thick. They said to the people, well, if a bullet hits, what happens? Nothing. Nothing. It bounces right off. Sir, this is the greatest bulletproof glass. I said, AK47. That's supposed to be a big one. I don't know so much about the guns. My sons know a lot, but I said, I know it's big. What would happen? They go up, meaning it can take more. I said, so if I'm making a speech and I hear that pinging sound at a window, what would I do? Sir, leave the room right away. But. But you're going to be safe. We're building something that's going to be amazing. And in light of what we went through, I think people understand it. It's going to be amazing. A phenomenal. One of the biggest drone ports anywhere in the world. Right on the roof, right? Protecting the White House, not only the ballroom. And what's underneath, you know, is supposed to be a top military secret. What's underneath. But then you get sued, as usual, and you have to reveal that you're building this unbelievable situation downstairs with room after room of very complex stuff. It was the military's dream to have it built. I want to have a ballroom because for 150 years they wanted it. And then the generals came to see me, and they said, sir, you're building something. This gives us an opportunity to do something that will be so unbelievable, never happen again, because there's very little built under the White House. Very hard to build under a very fragile building like that. It's very fragile. It's old and a little different construction standards, frankly. And this is an opportunity for us to build something very powerful. I said, let's keep it secret. They said, no, no, we're telling you, sir, let's keep it secret. And then we get sued. And we revealed every room, every. We told the people that did the sue, and they're not good people. We told them. We said, you know, you're being very unpatriotic when you bring a suit like this, but it is what it is. But it's going to be. It's really going. It's moving fast. We're ahead of schedule. We're right on budget, and it's going to be something like, I think, no, no country has. I just visited China. They have this magnificent room, the great room. They call it the great room. It's a great room, but what we have is going to blow there won't be anything like it. It's going to be fantastic. And with all of the things that are going along with it for safety and security of future presidents, you know, I'm only going to be using it for about six months. Assuming we finish it right on time, I get to use it. Somebody said, he's building it for himself. I'm building it for the future. I'm not building. I use it now. Had I not gone down six or seven stories then, in that case, I would have been able to get a couple of years out of it. But that was far more complex, what we did downstairs than what we do upstairs. So we're very proud of it, though. It's going to be amazing. And I think I was just telling the whole group sitting at the table we were talking about, and I said, I think, you know, it's White House correspondence, so I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to use that. It's going to be very large and very beautiful and very safe, and that's what you need. So I was thrilled to see that. After witnessing the attack, even Democrat Senator John Fetterman told his fellow Democrats to drop the Trump derangement syndrome and build the White House ballroom. But it's much more than that. It's something that you're going to use. I predict that you're going to end up up using it, and a lot of people are going to end up using it. They're going to be as safe as you can possibly be. But despite everything that happened at the previous dinner and all of the dangers involved, I'm told that this is still the hottest ticket in town, this ticket to get in tonight, because it's a smaller room, it's a beautiful room. It's a luxury room. See those beautiful chandeliers? I can tell you everything about them if you'd like to know. See that beautiful capitol above? See the beautiful capitol? See everything, the brass. Those chandeliers are great. I'm looking at them saying, I wonder if I could, you know, I sold this building and they're doing a nice job, but they're nice people. But I'll tell you, I'm looking at them saying, I wonder if I could walk out with those chandeliers, because you can't buy them. They're very special. I won't tell you the fact, I won't mention that they're checked crystal because I'd like to say everything's made here. But they are Czech crystal and they are beautiful. And the Waldorf People are doing a really nice job. We're proud of them, actually, because, you know, when I left town, I was in angry. I was a little bit angry. I was offered a nice price. I said, I'm getting out of that place. And then I said, let's make a comeback. And. But I was very proud of this building. This building was hot. Remember the lobby floor? 82,000ft. For those in the real estate business, 82,000ft. That's a major. That's a major floor. That thing was packed. Every single night was packed. Mostly Republicans, I would say, but it was packed every single night. It almost brings back memories. But I left town and I have just had nothing but good experience. And this might be the best experience of all, having all of these incredible people in this room. It's a great. It's a great feeling, frankly. It's a great feeling. But tonight's event. Thank you. But tonight's event is even crazier than the last time. In fact, it's so successful that I've been informed by CBS News David Ellison, who's going to do a fandom. He's the owner. He's the owner. He bought it, spent a lot of money, and he's going to make, I think, fantastic changes and keep some of the great stuff going. But that next year they're going to call it the Trump White House Correspondence Center. He told me that, and I like that very much. We're going to change the name of it. Okay. Well, it's going to be so hot, just like our country is hot. We are hot, by the way. But to be honest, it's just about the only way that they're going to ever get me back here. You're going to have to change the name of the dinner. What? How's that one going? Not too good. I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloins. Very special beef. And I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy is right here. Personally ran over the cow in his car and he cut it up and he brought it here for you to eat tonight. So it's very fresh. And Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill. But we drew the line at that, Cheryl. We said, no, we're not going to do that. We're not doing that. We love Bobby. I'll tell you, He's a piece of work. You think it's. It is fun. But he is a very different kind of a person, I will tell you. But he has Wanted to. And he's smart and he loves the country and he wants people to be made to feel good. Do you agree with that, Bobby? He wants people to feel good, and he's doing a fantastic job. Thank you, Bobby. Thank you. We can joke all we want, but thank you. A lot has happened since the last time we were all together. Last month, we hosted one of the most incredible sporting events in world history at the White house. The UFC Freedom250 fight. The UFC fight. When I announced that we're going to build a boxing ring right outside of the front door of the White House, that took a lot of heat. But it turned out that was, they say, about the most viewed fight in history. It was. It was beautiful. So many things happened. It was supposed to rain. We're going to do it the week before. And the weather was beautiful. And the weather came and it went. And now we came up to Wednesdays. They said, sir, this was on a Sunday night replacing 60 Minutes, which is nice and unusual because usually it's Saturday night. And they said, sir, this was from Wednesday on. Tell me about weather. Right, sir, it's going to rain. I think you're going to have to. It's going to be one of the worst storms that we've seen in a long time. It's coming up the coast. It's going to hit you on Sunday night. It's going to be a disaster. I'm saying, can you believe. And you saw the ring. We built Dana White, the great Dana White and everything. We had the best fighters in the world turned out. We had the best fights that we, most people have ever seen, including me. It was just a miracle. But what happened is we're waiting for this rain to come all day long, and it's coming and it's horrible, and it's 8 o'. Clock. And we say, I think we're going to shoot. It hasn't rained yet. I said, maybe we should postpone it an hour. Maybe we should make it the next day. We didn't know what to do. And finally we just said, let's just have it. And it never rained. It was perfect. In fact, the week before, it was 92 degrees. It was nice, but it was. This was like 72 degrees and the rain was coming. And it came right over the White House. And it was like, thank you very much. It went like this. And other areas were drenched a few miles away. We didn't have a drop of rain. And it was absolutely one of the most incredible things anybody's ever seen. People Said it's one of the most incredible nights of their lives. So just remember before I came along, if you wanted to see someone lose consciousness on the South Lawn of the White House, all you had to do is ask Joe Biden a question. Remember that? Oh, you think I'm kidding? But the big fight was such an amazing success that tonight I'm pleased to announce that we're going to host an even bigger one right in front of the White House. Every Friday night, every Saturday night, we're going to have fights in front of the White House. But we do have something coming that's. And I'm only kidding. You know the one thing about the press that I learned? Don't be sarcastic when. Because I'm a very sarcastic person, and I get sarcastic, and. And most people know that, but you have some bad people that will write it exactly like I say it. And I said I was only kidding. But we are going to have Indy 500. Roger Penske is coming in mid August, and they're going to have it all throughout Washington. The greatest cars, the greatest drivers in the world, and that's going to be something. Already they have over 350,000 people signed up going down Pennsylvania Avenue, round the Capitol. And Roger, who's incredible, he won the Indianapolis 520 times.

[Donald J. Trump]

Think of it.

[Jonathan Karl]

Germany, Japan, all these countries, they spend billions and billions of dollars trying to win the Indy 500. And Roger wins it. He literally won it 20 times on the 18th time. I said, you know, that's amazing. I'm going to give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And I had him up. And then he won it two times after that. The guy is amazing. And he lost the last one by about six inches, if anybody watched it. So they're coming here, and it's going to be something really exciting. We have unbelievable events. It's an unbelievable country. And on July 4th, we were over at the mall, and it was raining, supposed to be really bad again. And we had 450,000 people show up, and that's a light number. And I was told, sir, we're going to have to cancel the event. This was not good. And it was drizzling a little bit, not raining very hard. And people are calling me. Friends of mine were calling me. And I got a call from Brett Baer. Brett Baer said, it's not raining. I said, where are you? I'm standing at the mall, and I'm waiting to go in the White House. Then others called up. They said the same thing, and I said, you know, this is terrible. But there was lightning. Not big lightning, but you don't have to have big lightning. Just have to. It takes just a little bit to do some big damage. So they said, everybody must leave. Everybody. 450,000 people were forced to leave. And they left. And then I said to myself, I said, let me call up and find out what the hell's going on. And I called up and I spoke to a brilliant young man. He said, don't worry about it, sir. We can do it in a couple of weeks. I said, you can't do it in a couple of weeks. This is the 250th birthday in two weeks. What are we going to do? Say, let's go, we're going to have a redo? No, I said, I'll speak if I have to speak. At 3 o' clock in the morning, 2 o', clock, 1 o', clock, I don't care. Call them all back. They're all gone. 450,000 and most of them were in cars or heading back to Texas. And it was sad. And we said, the show must go on. Very much like here. We said the same term, right? The show. It's a great term. It's true in life. The show has to go on. The show must go on. And I said, the show must go on. I put it out on Truth. The show must go on. And we had probably, Peter, 150,000 people come back. Come back. Up higher, maybe. Thank you. Stand up, Peter. Tell them more. Right? It might have been more, but it was amazing. It was just an amazing crowd and actually worked out better a little like this. It worked out better than if we had done it at the normal 7 o', clock, 8 o' clock time. It was incredible. We started speaking at 11 o' clock in the evening, but tremendous numbers of people, tens, I mean, thousands and thousands, came roaring back. And it was a great evening and it was a celebration. And we didn't do it the following day, and we didn't do it two weeks later. We did it when we were supposed to do it. 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. And then you have a Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, AOC plus three. That's their three friends, right? AOC plus three. And 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. Remember, you cannot have a 19 second wait time to answer really a very quite simple question. But we'll then have a rematch against an extreme simple question on a foreign policy from Munich. Security conference. It was a big security conference, and this was her first time up in terms of that. And we had a sort of little preview. And then Anderson Cooper is going to fight Lawrence o'.

[Donald J. Trump]

Donnell.

[Jonathan Karl]

Not a. I'm not a fan of Lawrence o'. Donnell. I like Anderson, actually, because he's covered me well for many years and he went bad as soon as I went for politics.

[Diane Williams]

But.

[Jonathan Karl]

But for years, he loved interview. I did so many interviews with him and he was great. But, you know, he's got a little different persuasion than me in many ways, actually. And Lawrence o' Donnell, never liked him, never thought he had any talent, but he's still making a living, so I can't knock it. But we had a contest for who had the lowest ratings and the lowest IQ on television, and that was actually Don Lemon, I think. You know, when I said that he's the dumbest man on television, I said, you know, when you say some things, you never make it come back. It's not like, oh, gee, hey Don, let's have dinner some night. But I know what I'm saying. And then you have Bette Midler and Jane Fonda actually held a concert to protest the first UFC fight. They didn't want to see the fight, and very few people want. They had a. They held a. An event like three people showed up. And given the choice between seeing some of the really beat up faces of the ufc, almost everyone shows the people in the ufc. It was between the two of them of the ufc. And what about Bruce Springsteen? What the hell happened to that guy? He looks like hell. I don't care what anyone says. I'm not supposed to say, I'm sure he doesn't like the way I look, but I don't look so bad. But at a recent concert, Bruce, all he did was talk politics. He ought to run for office. That'd be interesting. But all he talked about, he made four political speeches in his three hour show. The tour has been renamed Bored in the usa. And his new song was so bad that Chris Christie, who's like A fan, you know, he goes out and tells everybody how he hates Chris Christie. Keep that guy out of my. And I see Chris Christie there again, high fiving Bruce Springsteen in the aisle. And Bruce Springsteen saw him and didn't even lift his hand up. And I just wanted. Because I used to be friendly with Chris. Chris, when somebody doesn't like you, write them off. Forget it. Yet billions of people in the world, you don't have to make a jerk out of yourself. But usually a comedian hosts this dinner and I think we sort of changed it to now we're going to have somebody who I think is really spectacular. But. But I've watched comedians get up for the dinner because I have been here actually quite a few times. People don't realize. And there's one time in particular when Barack Hussein Obama hosted it. Do you know who that is? And he hit me hard, but actually he hit me with respect. I was sitting with Melania at a table and you had Brooklyn Decker, supermodel, at a table right next to her. And she. I really always will like her. She's married to a great tennis player, Andy. And she was at the table, not at my table. And I have watched this clip thousands of times. They keep playing it because they think that was evening I decided to run for president. It was not. In fact, I loved the evening. I looked at my wife, I said, can you believe it? All these people, that's all they're doing is talking about me. I love this dinner. It's true. And Obama was nice, you know, it's amazing how things work. And he actually showed a picture of the White House with a big Trump on top. Like I put a sign. And you know, I'm sort of doing that when you think about it, right? I mean, think. He wasn't really wrong, but no, he was respectful, he was good. And. And it had. But it had nothing to do. It had nothing to do. I just decided that I wanted to make America great again. This had nothing to do with that dinner. I've gotten so many. Yeah, I've gotten so many calls. And for years they've been saying, was that the moment you decided to run? Really? No. I left that night. And the press was there. A lot of the same people that I see, they said, did you have a good time? Unbelievable. And some thought I didn't have, but I did have. And I really, I always remember, though, Brooklyn, she was so angry. She was much angrier than me. She was angry. She thought they were mocking me and they really weren't. It was just one of those things. And I had a great time, but I left. And I sort of thought I was there three or four times before that, but I sort of thought, wow, that dinner is really something special. And then I ran. I got elected. I thought the press treated me very, very unfairly. And I don't know. I think I made the right decision, because you hate to go where maybe you're not wanted. But they did want me. They wanted me for ratings, and they wanted me for other reasons, but not for love. And I said, you know, I'm not going to go. First time that ever happened, I think, was that the first time. Just about. Presidents always came. And I didn't go for four years because I got treated terribly by the press. You know, in my opinion, unfairly. I know unfairly because I know the facts. But. But I got treated unfairly. I didn't go. And this year, I was called by your president and your chairman and all of the people, and they said, we'd like to do it. And I said, you know what, with time, time goes by, time passes, and you sort of look at life a little bit differently. I said, let's do it. And I didn't know it was going to turn out the way it did. It turned out to be the biggest event in the history of your day. That was by far the biggest. Right. For all the wrong reasons. But as I said before, a lot was learned from that evening. So much having to do with so many different things, including security. But it's an honor to do it. This is my first. I mean, I've been to it numerous times, but as president, I haven't been here, and I'm glad. And I said. They said, would you do it next year? I said, I will be back next year. Now, if you get really, really nasty, maybe not. I don't know, but we're going to be back next year.

[Donald J. Trump]

Year.

[Jonathan Karl]

And will treat me very badly. But this year, the association decided not to have a comedian. So they considered using Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon. These guys, they're terrible. They're terrible. Stephen Colbert. These are people without talent. They get a lot. They have talent. You know who has talent? Their agent 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. But the association really put on a big show and they have somebody very special. I look forward to seeing him. And so they thought about going with a professional clown for entertainment, but Adam Shifty Schiff was not available. You know, he's known. I called him. I hate some people. You know, I shouldn't say this. I'm president. I'm not supposed to hate. I'm supposed to love everybody. 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, on a little pencil. Pencil. Pencil neck. And then I'm told that even Rosie o' Donnell reached out from Ireland. 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 respect to Donald J. Trump. But that didn't work out, unfortunately, because nobody wanted her to come back. She actually. But she's one of the greatest sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome. She's a sick young woman, sick older woman, I guess now I have to say. So instead, we're honored to have for entertainment the very talented mentalist O. Perlman. O's Perlman and everything. Everybody, they said, are you going to stay? I said, yeah, I'll say. I mean, I think I'll say, what the hell else am I going to do? I've got Iran, I've got this, I've got that. Which is all going extremely well. Don't believe the fake news. You know, it's the only thing I've ever. We were talking before, I said, so we've hit Iran very hard. Their navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. 250 jets. No longer. 159 boats, good boats. In fact, I said, why the hell didn't we keep them? We could have used them. But 159, but all at the bottom of the sea. They have no radar. They have very few drones left, despite what you see. And every once in a while they're going to set some things up, but they don't have much left. And by the way, they are talking to us right now. They'd love to make a deal. I don't think they're ready to. I don't think it's time yet, but I'm willing to listen. But they cannot have a nuclear weapon. We don't want to see Washington D.C. or any of our cities or Israel or frankly, the Middle east destroyed with a nuclear weapon. Because I know the power of nuclear weapons. I see it. I get to see it. We're not going to let that happen. So this is all about. We Will not let them have a nuclear weapon. And they would use it. They would use it if they had it. But Oz, I do have one question about what happened that time. Because he was there. How the hell did you not see that coming? He sees everything. He sees every. He's telling me about your grandmother and you're this. Why the hell didn't you. We gotta ask him that question when he gets up here. Why didn't he see that coming?

[Susan Walsh]

Coming.

[Jonathan Karl]

But of course, this evening it's really all about the fake news media and your handling of prizes, writing and producing and performing made up stories like the Academy Awards. You know, Academy Awards used to be the. The epitome of ratings. Outside of the super bowl, it got the second most ratings. Now it's down in the dumps. Nobody wants to watch it anymore because they took on Trump. They hit me all night long. They hit me. The winner is so and so. I want to talk about Donald Trump. I hate this, man. Nobody wants to hear this stuff, right, Peter? Nobody wants to hear. You ever see the ratings? They used to have 48 million people. Now they have two people watching. But they'll learn their lesson. But I want to personally congratulate CNN's Kaitlin Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It's a fake. She shouldn't get the award. It was a fake. But I didn't mind. I said, caitlin, congratulations. But it was fake. There's no question about it. But she's a young attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, caitlin, do you have a smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You're at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Caitlin, just smile. But we attack. And I thought Caitlin 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 made, by the way, for those few people that want to hear that. Most people don't care. But I would, I wouldn't want to hire Dylan anytime soon. Think of it, they hired Dylan Mulvaney and their market cap has gone down by $35 billion. Who wrote that commercial? And then you have writer Josh Dorsey. He also received. He's been killing me for years. No, he's been. And yet tonight he shakes my hand, he hugs me, everything nice. He kills me. Josh is amazing. He writes more stories than any human being. There's nobody that writes more than Josh. He'll write four stories about me a day, all different subjects. I mean, I had the other day three stories and one on the. He was upset about this. One was on page seven. Three were on page one. They were all written by Josh. But he's hit the big time, and he's a workhorse. And yet he's almost unhirable. You know, you hired. He's just one of these guys. Wall Street Journal's lucky to have him. But you really. It's unbelievable. He's almost unhirable. CNN is also here, and I'm very disappointed they didn't bring Fake Tapper because he's had a rough couple of years. Fake has. You know, he calls me up every once in a while. If I pick it up, you know, I pick up my phone. I used to go to this young lady. I'd say, any calls from the press? No, sir. I said, oh, now I'm the President of the United States, right? I'd say to Stephen Chung, is Stephen here someplace? Where's Stephen? He's one of the toughest human beings I've ever met. Don't ever wrestle, Stephen. You'll be in big trouble. But I say, steven, let me ask you. Did the press call? No, sir. You know, when I was a developer, I'd get a call every half an hour. For whatever reason, I always got disproportionate press. So I said, stephen, nobody called? No, sir. Two hours later, I said, hi, Steve. How are we doing? Everything good? Anybody call? No, sir. No press call. I said, I'm president. Nope. They never call. So this went on for about a week. I'd say, caroline, did the press call? No, sir. No calls. I said, nothing. That's over a week I haven't received a call. So I said, you know, I'm going to give the press my phone number. That was the stupidest thing I ever did. I'm getting a call every 3.7 minutes. Steven, I don't know where the hell you've been, but the press calls. I'm getting calls. Ring, ring. I was with somebody today. He said, I've never heard a phone ring as much. It's fresh now. I look at the thing and usually just delete, delete, delete. Every once in a while, it'll be one of the people in this room that I like, and I'll pick it up. Like this one right here. Calls me on occasion, right? She'll call me and she says, hello, sir. How are you? We want to talk about some horrible subject like A horrible, depressing subject. I say, jackie, I don't want to talk about congratulations, however, on your new marriage. But I don't want to talk about it. But it's true. And people call me now. And so for weeks I go, no calls. And I learned then that both of them, they feel that I'm doing a great job, and they feel I'm above it all, and that no person, hundreds of people called, no person is good enough to talk to Trump. And so we don't even bother telling you. That's not the way it works, Caroline. You have to let me know. Because sometimes I do want. I do like to speak to the press. But now I have the best system I've ever had. It rings. And just so you understand, you're much better off putting your name, because if there's no name, I just. I just can't do that. You know, I pick up every once in a while. Hello, I'm from Reno, Nevada. We're a startup paper. We're calling it the Reno Express. I said, do you believe I'm the President of the United States? Mr. President, could I have your views on Iran? And I just hang up. No, I get the craziest calls. I mean, some of them. My wife said, I can't believe you do this. This is a hell of a way to live. But sometimes they get calls from very important. Sometimes I can straighten out stories that are going to be fake, and I can make them from a fake story to a good story. I always find that when you don't speak to the press, you always get a bad story. When you do speak to the press, you have a shot at getting a good story.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh, look.

[Jonathan Karl]

No, look, if I were a reporter, and let's say I'm a big reporter, I work for the failing New York Times, or I work for. Well, I don't know. Do they ever come to these dinners? Didn't they cancel out a long time ago? Big mistake. They should be here. But I get a call. I've always found that, you know, speaking to them, you just do better. You do better when you can. When you have the time, you speak to the reporter. You treat the reporter with respect sometimes. Now, there are reporters where it doesn't matter. You can be so nice to them, it doesn't matter. You get treated unfairly. But you have a lot of great reporters where when you speak to them, you can get your point across. And that's a. That's a good thing. But some people say that Jake Tapper is a great investigative reporter in D.C. and that's why, after moderating our debate, it only took him one year to break the story that Joe Biden might possibly have suffered from cognitive decline. Took him one year. He wrote a book about how great he was. Mentally, not too good. And I don't like Biden because Biden was very unfair to a lot of people. But Jill Biden insists that Jill would have beaten me in 2024, even though he was way down. She said he was way behind in the polls because he was seriously ahead. She felt he was going to win because he was seriously ahead. On deceased deceased voters. He was leading in the deceased crowd. And there were a lot of them. You're finding out there's a lot of them. Look at the numbers that just came out yesterday. And it's traditional that at least one or two potential presidential hopefuls attend the Correspondents Dinner. But many of them seem to have really chickened out. I was disappointed that Gavin Newscomb didn't show up. He didn't show up. He should be here. But I heard that he recently said that we will lose our country if we don't fight fire with fire. And to be fair, there's only one thing we know about Gavin and that's that he definitely doesn't want to fight fire with water. He's got a lot of water. Never uses. What a disaster. That should have never happened. But Gavin Newscomb recently did a career threatening. One of the worst interviews I've ever seen where he said that. That he can't read a speech. He's incapable of reading a speech. He's a low IQ person. He's smarter, however, than all of the people in the room. And then he gets sued for being a racist. Okay, when he said that. But he basically said he has various mental incapacities. He has difficulty in various other ailments, mentally. And I'm looking at him saying, this is the worst interview. I'm watching this interview. I said, this is the worst interview I've ever seen given by a professor politician. I've been watching politicians for a long time, mostly on the previous side because I haven't been doing this too long. How am I doing?

[Caba Phillips]

Not.

[Jonathan Karl]

Not bad for the number of. For the number of minutes spent. Not bad. But with Gavin. So he said that, all these things. And I said, anybody running against him, all they have to do is take that one interview and you can't lose. I actually put out a statement that Gavin News Newsom has come out and said he will not be running for president because Nobody can say what he said about himself and survive. Newsom was in big trouble when he openly admitted that Kamala was smarter than him. She said Kamala is smarter. If Kamala is smarter than someone, you don't want that person to be President of the United States of America. Between California's policies of enabling wildfires, paying drug addicts to be homeless, giving free sex changes to illegals, and telling rich people they're going to take away, all of your money is going to be taken away. People are fleeing and they're fleeing in droves. We can't have that in this country. It's becoming such a horrible and dangerous location that, that Ilhan Omar, one of my favorites, and her brother are thinking about moving together. Very much in love. The video has surfaced recently of Ilhan giving a speech referring to World War II as World War 11. And they asked her about that. She still. She thought she got it right. But I'm not surprised because she's a low IQ person and she's also a very dishonest person and. And she ought to get the hell out of our country. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be in our country. She also calls her brother husband number one. Omar is reportedly being investigated for fraud. She revised her net worth. I was shocked to see that she was worth much more than $30 million. And then when the press got on her, she revised it slightly downward to less than 18,000. So she went from much more than 30 million to 18,000. And I know Democrats and the word Democrat is something that's come into fashion. I changed the E with a U. And most people don't know that dumb has a B, so we don't have to worry about that. It's very quiet. I thought it was quite good, but I haven't gotten much credit for that fake news.

[Susan Walsh]

Good.

[Jonathan Karl]

Pocahontas good. I won't say Lion Ted because he's on my side. I don't talk about past conquests, but we have a lot of them. I won't talk about. They got a whole table full of Republicans there. They're saying, no, don't mention my frickin name, will you please? But we've had a lot of good names. But the Democrats are there to destroy wealth and honestly, they've gone absolutely crazy. Gavin Newscomb's not only a man who really wants to run for president, he's doing a bad job running a state. You can't have somebody like a JB Pritzker, who I understand is not president, sadly, but you know, some people say never use the fat word. And I don't. I would never call anybody fat. I have my own problems, you know, it's not like I'm perfect. Sir, in the back. Don't call him a fat pig, okay? That's. I'm sticking up for him. Don't call him you. You can't do that, sir. You can't call JB Pritzker a fat pig. Please. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Everyone's trying to figure out, who is that guy? Does he exist? But the nice part is when you do that, the press can't get you. Because I'm defending a man who obviously has a problem. Actually, he's lost a lot of weight. I saw him recently. He lost quite a bit of weight. I don't know what the hell. He's got no chance. Believe me. Anything he does. Family threw him out of the business. A number of other potential Democrat contender sadly refused to show up tonight. We invited Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren. She's referred to Pocahontas because, in fact, I had to apologize. People came up, they said, we want you to apologize to Elizabeth Warren for calling her Pocahontas. And I ended up apologizing to the real Pocahontas. But Elizabeth Warren was supposedly of Indian heritage. And then she took the test and she only had 1024th Native American. And I said, you know what?

[Donald J. Trump]

I have.

[Jonathan Karl]

I think I'm more of an Indian than she is. So this is what we have to deal with. But Senator Warren did not accept our invitation to debate. I wanted to debate her in various and sundry things. And she. She decided not to do it. And I decided to bury the hatchet. It doesn't matter. And she. Well, I'm not going to say this next one. Do you want to hear this one? How bad? She wasn't high up on her totem pole. Who the hell wrote that? Now she's bad news. I wanted to make sure that Jack Smith, deranged Jack Smith. Remember, he went after me for about two years. How did he do? Nothing too good. I'm in the White House and he's not doing as well. I was going to say he's in a different kind of a house, but he's a deranged human being. He's a bad prosecutor. You know, prosecutors are very important. A great prosecutor, a fair prosecutor, but that's. A great prosecutor is the ones that are fair. They're very important to a country. But this guy was a deranged Lunatic saw his invitation tonight. He was invited because, you know. But I put it in a private text to Chuck Grassley, and Chuck saw him, and he did a certain thing. And then you. One man that we had who should be here, he turned Palestinian. This was a man who was 100% for Israel, 100%. Chuck Schirmer crying. Chuck, remember he cried at the airport over illegal immigrants. They were the fakest tears. There were people throwing water at his face. But now he's a proud, very proud Palestinian. In fact, I'm going to send him a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week, along with the mayor, who I'm sure would love to meet Bibi. They're not treating Bibi too well, but Chuck wanted to join us tonight, but he didn't want to be violating many parts of the Palestinian rules, regulations, and certainly he didn't want to violate Sharia law. His new. His new founding. And all joking aside, I do think we need term limits in Congress. I think term limits are very important because I see what's happening. I see what's happening. The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy from his wife, and she said, when you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me. And he said, I can't do both. You know what? You know, in other words, can't go up the stairs and make love. Does anybody get that? I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole fricking stupid speech that they wrote. That was the only good one. And that went down with not excited, exactly, great laughter, I think, you know, in other words, you can't go up the stairs and make love, too, you know, so we're looking for term limits. Does anybody understand this now? But I really do wonder whether the Democrats are trying to lose the midterms in Maine. They nominated a guy with a Nazi tattoo. But don't worry, Democrats word is that Platinum's replacement. He throws bottles at women. This guy throws bottles. This guy's another lunatic, by the way. Although I think Platner might have done surprisingly well because we're in the age of Trump. Call it what you want, people can do well today. Blattner, I don't know, but, you know, people don't have the guts to stick it out. But it looked like he was guilty of a lot of stuff. He certainly didn't defend himself very well. In Texas, the Democrats are Running a candidate name James Telefrico, who hates guns, hates oil, hates sex, hates women, and who said he is, quote, a Christian who hates Christianity. Other than that, his, I think his platform is quite good. And that means that he's not going to do very well against Ken Paxton, who hopefully in Texas is going to win. But Telefrico, he's alpha. You know what he looks like to me? Alfred E. Neumann. Do you remember Alfred E. Newman, Mad magazine? I said, that guy is Alfred E. Neumann. Can't imagine he'd win. While I have all of the press here in one place, I have to say that we're having an amazing load of accomplishments that the media never talks about. For example, under my administration, a once feared and powerful regime that relentlessly attacked America has finally been toppled. Their former leaders have been removed and they're now being run by a gay dictator facing internal divisions. But I for one wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News. She's a wonderful woman. Most of the press lives here in Washington, D.C. and you should be thankful for me for what my administration and I have done to make our nation's capital, which was one of the most dangerous and unsafe cities anywhere in the world, one of the safest cities in the United States. Crime is down 88% and our capital is shining again with 62 monuments, statues, water fountains looking more beautiful. The graffiti is all gone. The tents are all moved out of the parks. The fences are all done. Our capital looks like it's really in good shape. And people coming here, people in the White House, they work in the White House. They all say, young women, young guys walk up, they say, thank you, sir. Two years ago, we lived in a dangerous city. We lived in a city where 150 people were killed a year. And now we are, we have almost a crime free city. Our National Guard has done an incredible job. And we've removed over 5,000 career criminals. You know, we removed. There's one stat. I think it's a great stat. It's, to me, it's fantastic. 2% of the people create 91% of the crime. That's something you can fix. And we fix it. We moved out over 5,000 career criminals out of Washington, D.C. and we have the greatest capital in the world again. It's beautiful, it's thriving. The restaurants are thriving. You couldn't get into a restaurant because they didn't have. All the restaurants were closing. And if you even got in, you felt unsafe. People were getting into Ubers and they were being attacked when they Were in an Uber. It's not happening anymore. We have tough, smart people, and they have done a fantastic job. Washington, D.C. is safe again. You can't get into a restaurant. The restaurants are opening up. They're opening up all over the city. They can't get. It's the exact opposite. They can't get space. But mostly I've given up on you and the media, so that now I just gave up on you. And I'm number one on TikTok. Did you see that? I'm number one. Stephen, is that true? I'm number one on TikTok. How could they be so bad? 525. Think of this. 425 billion views. Can you believe that, Peter? I mean, let's go, Peter. I gave up on you people. I gave up on traditional press, and it obviously worked because we did win in a landline. I mean, somebody's got to be saying something good about me. But TikTok, good old TikTok, and I was able to get it sold to a group of very wealthy people, mostly Americans. I was told President Xi, who's a man that I get along with very well, he was a hard no for the sale of TikTok. They all said, he's a hard no. I said, well, let's call. Put your group together. They put it together. Billions, Hundreds of billions of dollars. As I called up President Xi, I said, president, look, these are American people. They're wonderful people. In fact, one of them happens to own cbs. Actually, I mentioned his name. I said, these are wonderful people, and it'll be a good thing. Doesn't mean anything, President. It's nothing. It's nothing. They love your country. We'd love to see you approve the deal. And he goes, all right. That was it. It was done, and we sold TikTok. And he's a friend of mine, and he's not contributing to problems like other people contribute to problems. So we get along, but we made the deal. But number one on TikTok is Trump. And that's probably why we won. But for all of the trouble that you give me, you give me a lot of trouble, a lot of heartache. I hope all of you know that I believe in the free press more than anyone in this room does. Maybe not quite, but that's why I'm proud to be the most open and transparent president in history. They called me that. You know who calls me that? Caroline. That's about it. So would anybody else call me that? I think Peter would call me that. Am I the most Transparent. Biden never used to answer your questions. He'd ask Biden 20 questions, he'd never get an answer. Who's the most transparent president? Peter?

[Brian Bennett]

Who?

[Donald J. Trump]

Who?

[Jonathan Karl]

I look at him, it's the first time he's tongue tied. I cannot believe it. Oh, he's not going to be happy tomorrow. But you people have no idea how lucky you are. When I'm gone, you're all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished. No, it's true. When I'm not around, you're going to be broke. There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else. The New York Times the other day had five stories about me. You know, before I got into politics, in my whole life, I had seven front page stories. This is years of success. I think six were good, one was bad. I had five stories. Seven. Five good.

[Brent Scher]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Karl]

I had a total of seven stories on the front page of the New York Times. That's not bad. Now, I average about three or four a day. All different topics, all bad, everything bad. But here we are. I mean, here we are. In fact, when I'm finished, I'm going right back to the Oval Office, so I have to be doing okay. But we are all doing good together. That's why tonight, to show just how much I care about the press and I want to save your ratings. I'm pleased to announce my intention to, and this is somewhat of a scoop, my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States. I will be doing that. I will be having an official. In fact, I think I have. Yeah, I won three times now. I'm going to do it again. Thank you. I'm going to do it. Should be easy. I'm getting very good at running. Running for president. No, I won three times. Did very well the second time, by the way. It's a rigged election, but we don't have to talk about it. You know, it's interesting when you come back and you do a good job like we did and you don't care about it so much, but we do have to tighten up these elections because they really are in seriously bad shape. But on a serious note, I want to say once again, I just want to thank you all. It's been an interesting evening. I didn't really know what to expect and it's far worse than I actually thought, but if you want to know that. But I didn't know exactly what to expect and 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 because most of us went through a period of trauma from just a short while ago. And you know, some people said they wanted to come but they were afraid to come. And you people weren't afraid to come. There were a lot of people that said, Jackie, they don't really, you know, they didn't have the courage to come. And we don't want that to happen. And I'm sure it's not going to happen. We're going to do things again, I want to thank our law enforcement. Keeps us safe. All law enforcement. We have the greatest people on earth. You know, we had two years ago, we had the worst record of recruitment in as an example, the military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, the Coast Guard, Space Force. I love Space Force. Look at all that shooting we're able to do from space. That was my baby. But all of the branches of. You couldn't get people to join. This was two years ago and last week you probably saw some of you wrote the story. We have the single best recruiting of people into our armed forces than we have ever had in the history of our country. We have. They are brimming over with great people. And that's a big statement. And that also goes for the police departments where they were having a tremendous problem recruiting. You can't get into a police department now if you're looking for a job. It's very tough. And that also includes our great fire departments because people forget about them. They're unbelievable the job they do. So I just want to thank you. Look, we're on the cusp of something big and I call it. And this, I'm being very serious when I say this, that this is the golden age of America. We have $19.2 trillion being spent in our country. A record was China. I think it was 10 years ago. 3 trillion trillion is a lot. 4 years. They went less than 1 trillion under Biden and we have 19.2 trillion. And this is a period of actually 13 months, not even current because we're here a little bit longer than that. But that was as of reporting dates. $19.2 trillion is being spent. Factories are coming. Toyota just announced they're going to be building the biggest car plant in the world. They're leaving Mexico. They're coming here. Tariffs did that. Tariffs did that. And maybe November 5th did that too. The election. But our country is doing things that nobody has ever seen before. And it is true. We were. And you've heard me say this, we were a dead country two years ago. Other leaders would see me and they'd say, it's a miracle. President Xi told me that a few weeks ago in China. And he's coming here on September, I think, 24th, coming in September, the end of September. Going to be exciting. But he said the same thing. The king of Saudi Arabia said it. Everyone said almost the same, we thought you were a dead country. We never thought you had a chance. You were never going to make it back. And in a period of year, period of one year, you made it the hottest country anywhere in the world. We all did that together. It's not me. We all did it together. And we do. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And we're going to keep it going. And I just want to say it is a room. I have tremendous respect for the people in this room. Sometimes I don't feel you treat me fair. Maybe you do. I don't know. I don't feel that. But sometimes you treat me very fairly. And I have a lot of respect for your profession. Your profession is amazing. And I just want to thank you for having me. And it's been fun, and I've met a lot of great people. And, you know, I used an expression. I've used it right from the beginning. I did this for one reason, to make America great again. And that's what. What's happening right before your very eyes. We have made America great again. It's going to get a lot greater. So thank you all very much. It's an honor to be with you.

[Brian Bennett]

Thank you.

[Jonathan Karl]

Thank you very much.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Thank you. Thank you, President Trump. People asked me for several months, how long is he going to speak? And I said, you're White House correspondents, so you should know. And thank you, President Trump.

[Josh Dawsey]

So

[Jackie Heinrich]

this night is all about the First Amendment. Tonight was on full display, and I just want to congratulate all of our award winners again. My friend Caitlin, who has a beautiful smile, and Josh Dawsey, who is one of the most prolific journalists of our time. That is true. Okay, now we're finally going to answer a question people have been asking since I announced he was coming to the dinner back in February. What the heck is a mentalist? The wait is over. Please welcome Oz Perlman.

[Oz Perlman]

Give it up for Mentalist.

[Jonathan Karl]

Oz Perlman.

[Diane Williams]

The mentalist on people's minds is Oz Perlman.

[Donald J. Trump]

How did you get.

[Oz Perlman]

Who Are you thinking of at this very moment in time? Who are you gonna talk to this week?

[Donald J. Trump]

Vince. Vince.

[Tyler Pager]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Open your hand up.

[Jonathan Karl]

No.

[Tyler Pager]

No.

[Diane Williams]

Oh, my God.

[Oz Perlman]

Look in your hands, Aaron.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Albert Einstein.

[Donald J. Trump]

Okay, that. I can't even host the show anymore.

[Jonathan Karl]

That's the craziest I've ever seen in.

[Oz Perlman]

Who is she?

[Donald J. Trump]

Oprah Winfrew.

[Oz Perlman]

Say hello to Ms. Oprah.

[Susan Walsh]

Whoa.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oprah Winfrew.

[Diane Williams]

Oz.

[Jonathan Karl]

My God,

[Donald J. Trump]

Oz.

[Jonathan Karl]

What is the stock?

[Oz Perlman]

I'm thinking Disney is about to roll out a streaming service.

[Caba Phillips]

No.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Wow.

[Donald J. Trump]

Wow. If there's something freaky in here, I'm the heck out of here.

[Oz Perlman]

Better be.

[Josh Dawsey]

I'm out.

[Donald J. Trump]

How the could he do that? You're at the top of your game, dude.

[Oz Perlman]

Barack Obama's who just thought, get the

[Donald J. Trump]

fuck out of here.

[Oz Perlman]

How is that possible?

[Donald J. Trump]

Mind blown again. I know we're on tv, but this is crazy. I'm done. I'm done. What?

[Diane Williams]

That is nuts.

[Donald J. Trump]

This is crazy.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Oh, my God. Oz, you're amazing.

[Donald J. Trump]

No, no. Oh, my gosh. O's, Bremen, you're a genius.

[Oz Perlman]

Thanks to Jamar Rose.

[Jonathan Karl]

To Tanner.

[Donald J. Trump]

That's literally insane. It's, like, shattered my worldview. I have to rethink how I think about everything. Please welcome to the stage.

[Jonathan Karl]

Stage. Bose Pearlman.

[Oz Perlman]

There we go, folks. What an honor to be here among such distinguished guests, Cabinet members. The President, he made an announcement. I just heard that he will be attending next year's event. I thought he was going to be speaking until next year, actually. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Folks, I have to give a shout out, honestly, three months ago, to the heroic bravery of the Secret Service and law enforcement who kept us all safe. Please, everybody. I felt truly blessed that day to go home and be able to kiss all my kids. And yet cursed that every single day since everybody I meet, including now the President of the United States, goes, if you're such a good mentalist, why didn't you see that coming? Everyone in here, your words that you broadcast and speak influence minds all around the globe. So all of you, hold up your left hand and picture a globe in your left hand. Good, good. Sir, that's gonna be your other left hand. That guy. That guy is wasted right now. Secret Service, code yellow. Got him. No, I'm kidding. That was not. I just saved your life. Everyone, imagine at this moment, you spin that globe and you stop anywhere. Random.

[Donald J. Trump]

Bam.

[Oz Perlman]

Go for it. Follow me with the mic. Follow me with the mic. Let's go over to somebody. Let's go to this gentleman whose body language is Saying so desperately. Not me. Not me. Everyone thinks it's fake. I watch this on tv. I think it's fake. Sir, have we ever. Right over here. Have we ever spoken a word in our life? Red bow tie, aggressive play.

[Jonathan Karl]

No, no, no.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. What is your name?

[Jonathan Karl]

Steve.

[Oz Perlman]

Steve, hold up. They love you, Steve. Steve, did you just spin a globe and go to a random place?

[Jonathan Karl]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Hear me out, folks. In a few months, Steve will forget the random place because there's no meaning. But. No, listen to me. And then a year from now, you'll say, who was the guy we saw last year? I cannot have you forgetting me. By next year, I'm gonna be the show you talk about for years to come. So, everyone, I don't want a random place. Everybody take. Give it another spin. Follow me. Everyone give another spin. I want eyes to light up. I want butterflies in your stomach. Everybody stop on one spot. And I want to see a big smile. I want to see excitement in your eyes. That guy just winked at me. I don't know why. Follow me with the mic. Right over here. This gentleman with a perfect head of hair. They're going to hold the mic. They're going to help you out. Tell us your first name.

[Donald J. Trump]

First name is David.

[Oz Perlman]

David, stand up, please. Give him a hand for helping me out. Give him a hand, David. I don't know the future. I'm not a psychic. I would have called that three months ago. I read people. Hold up your hand. Try not to react. South America, North America. Look down again. Number one place in the world. You'd love to go. Look at it again. But this man dreams big. But you haven't been there. Look at that place one more time. Look at me. Yeah, that's the smile I wanted to see. Asia, Africa, Antarctica. Too cold for you? Turn your back. So I can't see you and you can't see me. Close your eyes for me, David. Close your eyes, David. Was there any hesitation in your mind? Were you on the fence? Look, the shift in the posture, the weight on the right foot. Close your eyes. My boy just changed his mind. Come on, David. He just said in his head, he goes, if I'm not paying, I'm going big. There's a passport involved. David, keep your eyes closed. Keep your eyes closed. Keep your eyes closed. What was the place when I said, spin it? Stop right there. Where did you want to go? Tell us.

[Donald J. Trump]

Taj Mahal.

[Oz Perlman]

Can I ask you a question?

[Caba Phillips]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

That's why I said you shifted your balance. Have you been there before?

[Donald J. Trump]

Never.

[Josh Dawsey]

Hmm.

[Oz Perlman]

I'm so curious. Let me ask you a question. You never know how this works. Did you change your mind?

[Jonathan Karl]

No.

[Oz Perlman]

Were you thinking initially of a place and you've. I've been there, so it's too obvious. And at the last moment you change. What was the first place you thought of? Big Sur, California, where I just visited.

[Jonathan Karl]

And then.

[Oz Perlman]

And then Taj Mahal was your get. Was. Was the layup. There it is right there. What did you think of after that? I saw you chilling, relaxing. Was there another place you were thinking of?

[Donald J. Trump]

Great Wall of China.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. Close enough. I'll take big. Sir, turn around. Maybe you're just drinking Fiji water.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'll take it. I'll take it.

[Oz Perlman]

Did Fiji pop in your head?

[Jonathan Karl]

Fiji came at one point.

[Oz Perlman]

I will say Fiji did come at one point. This guy's like, I'm going to all expense vacation. I'm doing a world tour here. I say think of one place. That's fine. That's fine. Have a seat for me.

[Donald J. Trump]

You got it.

[Oz Perlman]

Hear me out. Hear me out. What happens if somebody lies in my show? Right. What happens if somebody lies in my show? And this room never lies, so there's no chance. Watch this. I need to put some skin in the game right now. If I lose, what happens? Nothing. I already got paid for the show. Let's come out in this crowd. Raise your hand if you have any cash on you. If you have any money on you, raise your hand. What is this? All the cabinets broke. What's going on? Where's that Super PAC money? Follow me. I'm going. You know what? I see the name tag. I don't have to read minds. Acting Attorney General, let's go over to this gentleman. Introduce yourself, please.

[Josh Dawsey]

Pardon me?

[Oz Perlman]

Tell us your first name.

[Donald J. Trump]

You don't know my name?

[Oz Perlman]

I know it, but it seems fake. If I know Todd, I can say it. Stand up, give him a hand. Everybody, for helping me out, Just tap on the mic. Let's make sure it works. Are you a money clip or a wallet kind of guy? Don't take it out.

[Josh Dawsey]

No, neither.

[Brent Scher]

It's like a little.

[Oz Perlman]

It's more like a wallet. Okay. It was a multiple choice. That's okay. Do you know, and I always ask this question because you never know you're going out. Cash isn't as common now. Do you know exactly how much is in there? You're not sure?

[Josh Dawsey]

I'm not sure.

[Oz Perlman]

I like that. Right, Baller.

[Diane Williams]

No,

[Oz Perlman]

I want you to count it. But hold on. Do it under the table. So there's no way I Could see under the table and move away with the microphone. I picked the right guy. Stand up. Lie to me. Don't tell me how much money you really have. Make up a lie. Make up a lie. Lie to me. How much you got?

[Josh Dawsey]

130.

[Oz Perlman]

I would have said, if you're gonna dream, dream big, Todd.

[Donald J. Trump]

That was dreaming big,

[Oz Perlman]

folks. I notice patterns. I notice patterns, and I can't explain why. And this is not a stereotype, but when I do this with men versus women, they lie differently. And I don't know why that is. It's not a gender stereotype, but for some odd reason. Statistical analysis. Women will prefer to use a number smaller than the amount they actually have on them. I don't know why. Men like to lie by saying things are bigger. No examples. You didn't laugh at that joke, Todd. Joke was hilarious. Bingo. My acting Attorney general just lied too big. Here's the question to ask yourself. Cover your eyes. How could I know something he didn't even know? Let me show you over here. Let me show the president. President's still admiring the Czech crystal, I'm noticing. Those are beautiful chandeliers, sir. Open your eyes. How much you got, Todd?

[Donald J. Trump]

$85.

[Oz Perlman]

$85, everybody. IRS conducting a forensic audit as we speak on you. Sir, do you know the gentleman standing in front of you sitting in front of you?

[Josh Dawsey]

I met him tonight.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. You seemed happier than he did. That was a weird response. Tell us your name.

[Jonathan Karl]

My name is Tom.

[Oz Perlman]

Tom, hold out your hands flat, if you don't mind. Like a pancake. Take any one of those bills out for me, Todd. And I want to create a moment in this room for Todd and Tom that you will never forget. Flip the bill over for me. And I want you to remember this White House Correspondent's Dinner. I will. Todd is like, I should have brought more cash. Turn to face him, please. And what I'd like you to do here is you're gonna be his table. You could sit if you want, but that's okay. I want you to take. And I want you to sign it. Go ahead. And then hold it up so everyone can see the federal offense you have just committed. He just clearly lost the Senate confirmation hearings on camera. I'm teasing you, Todd. Todd, did you sign that bill?

[Jonathan Karl]

I did.

[Oz Perlman]

I don't know why you're smiling over here, Tom. You're an accessory to the crime. Sir, this is the acting Attorney General. I want you to take that bad boy. Fold it in half, please. Fold it again. And I want you to recount the Moments that just happened under oath in court. Did you touch that bill, Todd?

[Josh Dawsey]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Did Tom touch the bill?

[Josh Dawsey]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Did anyone else ever touch that bill, sir?

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm sure someone else did, but not

[Oz Perlman]

to statute of limitations. I want to make sure nobody ever wants to touch it in the future. Fold it in half, fold it again, sit on it. He just confirmed with his wife, and he didn't even go right or left cheek. He went dead center. That's a man who takes no chances. I'm gonna ask every one of you in this room a question. Here's what I'd like you all to do right now for me, journalists, accomplished people who like to get to the bottom of things. I want everyone to take a deep breath in, and I want everyone to give me a nice, strong exhale out. And I want you to close your eyes and visualize that sitting across from you. I have this question I'd love to ask you. I say if you could interview in this room. I call it interview sometimes. I say have dinner, you know, break bread, ask questions. If you could interview somebody famous. But let's make it hypothetical. Dead or alive, past or present, anyone that's ever lived. It's a fascinating question, and I want you to visualize. That's the key, is not just see it in your mind, but see that person sitting across from you. Open your eyes, nod your heads if you've already done it. Nod your head. Some of you click on the draw. Some of you are still relatively sober. Given the fact It's, I think, 3:00am at this moment, I lost track of time. If you haven't yet done it, Crunch time, everybody. Three, two, one. Done. Wake up, everyone. Give me a big clap over your head. If you can see your person clear as day, give me a big clap. All right, follow me with the mics. We're going rapid fire here. Follow me with the mics. Follow me, follow me. Come on over. Give me another clap. I like the fact that this gentleman right over here. Can we see him? We're gonna point over. Looked at me distinctly, looked at me, clapped, nodded, then shook his head. I don't even know what that means.

[Donald J. Trump]

I saw you coming.

[Oz Perlman]

You saw me coming?

[Melissa Young]

Yes, I did.

[Oz Perlman]

And you're like, what do I do? How do I avoid him even though I'm sitting in the front row?

[Donald J. Trump]

Push my wife in front of.

[Oz Perlman]

Push your wife that I love. Chivalry is not dead. What's your name?

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm Ed.

[Oz Perlman]

Ed.

[Diane Williams]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Parents. Nailed it. You look like an ad. I think that's perfect. Have we ever spoken a word in our life, ever?

[Brian Bennett]

We have not.

[Oz Perlman]

Stand up for me, Ed. Now, if I go head to head, toe to toe with Ed, I don't think it's good enough. It's not good enough. The more people I can do this with, the more impossible it becomes. Give me some more claps. Follow me with the mic. Follow me with the camera. Follow me with the camera. Oh, follow me, follow me. Come on over. I like this was an incredible smile. Arms extended. She threw in a belly dance. I reward extra credit. No, Ed, stand up. We didn't get rid of you. I love you, Ed. Let's go right over here. Tell us your first name.

[Susan Walsh]

Michelle.

[Oz Perlman]

Stand up. Two L's. I'm a mind reader. Come on, Michelle. Come on. Another clap, another clap, another clap. I look around. This was a moment. We had a moment right over here. If you go to this young lady, she looked at me, and when we made eye contact, Ed, she did not nod, she did not shake her head. But rather, when we made eye contact, she closed her eyes tightly, as if to activate some sort of camouflage shield, saying to herself, if I don't see him, does he still see me? I see you. Tell us your name.

[Diane Williams]

Aaron.

[Oz Perlman]

Stand up for me, please. I now have 1, 2, 3 people thinking of 3 different people they want to have dinner with. This side's feeling no love. I can see it in your eyes. You're feeling no love. So let's keep it going. Two more people, rapid fire. Follow me with the mics. Follow me. Give me some claps. Give me some claps. Your joy is effervescent. Also the pocket square. Four ripples. Next level, my friend. Next level. What is your name?

[Donald J. Trump]

My name is Kevin.

[Oz Perlman]

Kevin. Stand up for me, Kevin. I never go past four. Give him a round of applause. Make some noise. But this is not just any event. It's the White House correspondence there. It's been going over a hundred years. I'm the First Mentalist. One more group. One more group right over here. I didn't even tell you I would do this. Give me a clap. Let me see it. Who thinks they have someone I will not get? You will be my Fiji water. Who will that be? Give me a clap. Okay, all of you with the big clap. You're too confident. I don't like it. I like the people that are on the fence. I like this young lady right over here. This young lady looked over, she squinted at me. She didn't clap. She just gave me an. I'm looking at you, buddy. Tell us your first name.

[Melissa Young]

My name is Alex.

[Oz Perlman]

Alex. Give Alex a hand, too, as well. Alex, Kevin, Ed, Aaron, Michelle. Michelle with two L's. Each of you, I ask to think of somebody famous sitting across from you. And you are the edge of your seat. Scintillating, asking them questions. Sit down. If it's Jack Kerouac, Folks, don't hold the applause in. Let it out. Let it out.

[Melissa Young]

That's so obscure.

[Diane Williams]

Like you should not have gotten.

[Oz Perlman]

Never bring a knife to a gunfight. Joke is too soon. Too soon, too soon. Have a seat for me, please.

[Melissa Young]

That's it.

[Diane Williams]

That is 100% it.

[Oz Perlman]

I know. I can read your mind. That's what I.

[Diane Williams]

You don't have to keep telling me.

[Oz Perlman]

Have a seat.

[Jonathan Karl]

Thank you.

[Oz Perlman]

I like how Erin just rethought her choice. She's like, mine's too easy. Mine's too easy.

[Donald J. Trump]

There's no way he would know.

[Oz Perlman]

Kevin, you are a ball of positive energy. Just looking at you has uplifted my mood. And without caffeine, I can tell you for a 100% fact, I'm not even gonna hedge. Not 99, not 100% live TV. Your person is alive and well. Am I correct?

[Donald J. Trump]

You are correct.

[Oz Perlman]

How did I know that? Your vitality, your energy versus. If we could point the camera at Ed Gerard. Ed is over here.

[Brent Scher]

That's that guy.

[Donald J. Trump]

Ed

[Oz Perlman]

has dead guy vibes written all over him.

[Donald J. Trump]

Come on, man. I'm feeling pretty.

[Oz Perlman]

Is it a dead guy, Ed?

[Brian Bennett]

Vital.

[Oz Perlman]

Is it a dead guy?

[Donald J. Trump]

It is.

[Oz Perlman]

Yeah. Classic Ed.

[Donald J. Trump]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Yeah.

[Donald J. Trump]

Dead guy.

[Oz Perlman]

Why are you on the fence?

[Donald J. Trump]

No, he's definitely a dead guy.

[Oz Perlman]

You weren't sure if he was dead or alive.

[Donald J. Trump]

I'm saying I'm vital. I'm just saying he's dead.

[Oz Perlman]

Oh, yeah. It's nothing about you. You're Gonna Live to 120, baby. I'm talking about the person you're thinking of. Yeah, you know what? Arms behind the back. This guy's very proper. He's done a lot of World War II biographies. Sit down. If it's Winston Churchill, you're right. Folks, I'm getting 6% applause on things that deserve 120. Have a seat for me, Ed. Have a seat, Ed. Have a seat. Bless you. I knew you would sneeze right then, Aaron. Playful hair adjustment. Always a guy. It's always a guy. The hair adjustment twice. It's a guy. Am I right?

[Diane Williams]

It's a man.

[Oz Perlman]

I could tell.

[Diane Williams]

I could tell it wasn't playful hair, but it was just an adjustment.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. There's no implications here. I like how Tom just told Todd. He's like, why didn't you bring more money, bro? Why didn't you bring more money? I did this last week. I filmed my Netflix special, and I did this. And the last person standing thought of a movie star. And when I got it right, he did not sit down. And the tension grew in the room. And I said, sir, did I get it? He goes, yeah. And I go, okay. And he goes, oh, yeah. What movie am I thinking of? I'm like, buddy, there's no On Demand feature. It's always, I wonder what movie she's thinking of of his. But I'm gonna go with it. Do you know what question you're gonna ask him right off the jump? Or is it more just a flowing conversation? What's flowing?

[Diane Williams]

Just flowing.

[Oz Perlman]

Flowing. I love that. I love that. And you're debating. And I was thinking, like, I think he's passed away. Am I correct?

[Donald J. Trump]

Correct.

[Oz Perlman]

It seems somber.

[Jonathan Karl]

Yeah.

[Diane Williams]

Not somber, but passed away.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. I don't know which movie. Tell us all. Who are you sitting down to dinner with? Who's across from you during this scintillating interview?

[Donald J. Trump]

Jerry Garcia. Yeah.

[Diane Williams]

Are you wrong?

[Oz Perlman]

Don't ever doubt me again. Don't you ever doubt.

[Donald J. Trump]

You scared me.

[Jonathan Karl]

How did you know?

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh, my God. All right.

[Oz Perlman]

Guy next to her dropped an F bomb, but not on the hot mic. We're okay. We are okay. Michelle with two L's. Kevin with the tremendous smile. We have an issue right now. We have a problem. You don't realize it, but the issue is that so far, tonight, I'm on fire. No. Don't you smile, Kevin. It's a bad thing. I set the bar too high too soon. Which means that right now I can no longer guess who you're each thinking of, because you will say to me later, what'd you think of that guy? O's. And you're like, he's pretty good. But then he did it four or five times. He plateaued, Kevin. I don't plateau.

[Jonathan Karl]

I peak.

[Oz Perlman]

So I'm gonna hand each of you. We're gonna hand you each a poster board and a marker. If we can grab. Come on, I need you. We're gonna hand you each one. Don't open the markers yet. The markers. Just because people try to unscrew them, they just pop. Don't they smell? Don't do that, Kevin. Don't do that. Hand each person one and each of you. Very important. Don't open the marker. Hold them close to you. Hold them sideways. Landscape is good. Okay. Little twist there, Kev. There you go. Beautiful. Freeze. I'm not gonna guess who you're each thinking of. I'm going to do something exponentially crazier. You're going to talk about this for years. This Frisbee I purchased for 82 cents. Amazon prime free same day shipping. This Frisbee has a 1.5 star review. This is literally the worst Frisbee in the world. I could have my friend Tom Brady right here trying to throw it to you. It would not land. It does not fly. True. Let's see. Who could we get? The President. Yes. Will you just throw it for us? Is that okay? I don't know if I can aim it. Secret Service. Is this okay? They just went code red. Sentimentalist. No. Is that. I can't throw this. We'll see what we can do. We'll see we can do. I don't know if I can aim this thing. Present there. Okay.

[Donald J. Trump]

You know what?

[Oz Perlman]

I have a better idea. Throw the hat out in the crowd. Let's go. Someone catch. Or nobody catch.

[Diane Williams]

Glassware down.

[Oz Perlman]

This guy just became his VP running mate in 2028. Hear me out. If you'd like. This is entirely your choice. You can help me. But the Frisbee goes further than the hat. So it adds elements of excitement and randomness. Versus the hat had about three people to land. Because it appears I've made half the room disappear. Would you like to keep it or would you like to throw it onwards and make this even more random?

[Donald J. Trump]

Actually I would love to keep it.

[Oz Perlman]

Would you like to join me on stage and be my mind reading protege? Why not? Give her a round of applause. Everybody. I'm going to stand you right here. We're going to bring you a microphone. Tell us all your name.

[Diane Williams]

My name is Diane Williams.

[Oz Perlman]

Diane Williams. Have you and I ever spoken a word in our life?

[Wolf Blitzer]

No.

[Susan Walsh]

Never.

[Oz Perlman]

Diane Williams. Go ahead and read their minds. How crazy would that have been? Are you kidding me right now? Dan Williams. We need to get. We need to get into the zone. Okay. No, no, no, no. Not really. Yoga style. I want you to give me your best mind reading.

[Jonathan Karl]

Pokemon.

[Oz Perlman]

Bring the hands up here. That's pretty good. That's more. Okay. That's more. It's sunny out. Let's hit them. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Dan Williams. Here's what I'm gonna do for you. I'm going to assist you. Look at me. I'm going to have you picture a crystal ball in my hands. There Is not really a crystal ball. You are going to look down into my hands and I want you to look through that crystal ball down into my hands and I want you to nod your head. If you are seeing clear as day two people or pretending. Can you see them? Is that a yes? You're really playing this up. And keep your eyes closed. And I want you to repeat over and over in your head who you just saw over and over your head. Do you see two people? Could you see those two people? Close your eyes. Diane Williams. Close your eyes. Kevin. Michelle, uncap your marker. Keep your eyes closed. Diane Williams, I want you to write down your person's first and last name or their name as big as you can. As big as you can. Please maximize the space on there. The person you picked, write their name as big as you can. Are you done, Michelle?

[Donald J. Trump]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Take your time, Kevin. I'm getting bored of my own show. Kevin, you're done, man. Wake up. Come back to the light. Now I'm gonna give you one clue which is that we were able to ascertain that his person is alive. We said that earlier.

[Diane Williams]

Okay?

[Oz Perlman]

So I want you not just to look into that beautiful smile, but look into his eyes. See the reflection across from him and tell him who is the person he is sitting down to dinner with. The person is alive. Who is it?

[Diane Williams]

Michael Jordan.

[Brian Bennett]

Michael Jordan.

[Josh Dawsey]

Stop.

[Oz Perlman]

Folks, are you alive in this room right now?

[Donald J. Trump]

Crazy.

[Oz Perlman]

That was a 3 out of 10 on something that should have been a 12 out of 10. So no, no, I'm not looking for pity. If lightning strikes twice here at the Waldorf Astoria and Diane Williams nails this, there better not be one butt still in a seat. Unless you are mobility impaired, in which case I want to see a miracle. So you don't look into Michelle's eyes. You look into her soul and you tell this woman. Okay.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Okay.

[Oz Perlman]

What's that?

[Donald J. Trump]

I just saw one.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay, well, that's his name. Okay, what would we do? What if we put on your. Put on your mind reading face.

[Susan Walsh]

Okay.

[Oz Perlman]

Diane Williams, get back in the zone. Look at me. Stare me in the eyes. Her eye contact is very intense, folks. I hold this crystal ball up, we look through it, we see this beautiful Czech glass. Down, we look down. We look down and we look down and we see a face. And we say to ourselves, who do we see? You're pretending even though God knows the this is not going to work. So I'm hoping for the best.

[Susan Walsh]

Okay?

[Oz Perlman]

I don't think it's going to work, but who knows? Are you Staring at Michelle? Are you looking into her eyes? Look deeper. Look into her soul and give it your best shot. Diane Williams. Who is she having dinner with?

[Donald J. Trump]

Could it be jfk?

[Oz Perlman]

Turn it around. Turn it around.

[Jonathan Karl]

Turn it around.

[Josh Dawsey]

Have a seat.

[Oz Perlman]

Have a seat, Folks. Folks, I'm bringing Diane on the road with me. For the record, she's keeping the hat. Really quick, let's see. At this juncture in the evening, if anybody still has battery life. Grab out your phone, go to your calculator. I just watched this man clear as day. Clear his browser history. Please go to your calculator. If there's a number, I don't want it. Get rid of it. Clear that number out. And I want to see nice, beautiful zeros out there. Do we have zeros? Hold them up, hold them up, hold them up. Let me see. We got.

[Donald J. Trump]

Okay,

[Oz Perlman]

I need to see energy. I feed off of it. Who wants in? Who wants in right now? Who wants in? Who seems excited? One guy just looked at me and started flexing. I don't know why. Okay, battery life still in the green. You're doing pretty well there, sir. What is your name?

[Donald J. Trump]

Josh.

[Oz Perlman]

Josh. Traditional spelling. Do you want to join me? Let's get him up here. Let's hear it for Josh, everybody. Josh, come on up. Come on up, partner. Let's bring up.

[Brian Bennett]

Josh.

[Oz Perlman]

Here's what I want you to do. I need to get somebody else in the mix. I want you to do two things. We're going to fact check this. You're going to be typing this in one more. Partner in crime. Pick somebody out there for me to help me out. Who's it going to be? Dina, at your own table. Okay, so I like the nepotism here. He's like, let's just stick with my own table. Dina, do you have your phone as well?

[Susan Walsh]

I do.

[Oz Perlman]

Stand up. Dina has no cover. Just living dangerous over there. This trick is about to be called Apple Care. Dina, should we swap? Josh, come with me. Dina, I'm gonna bring you in as well. Dina, since I didn't get to throw a Frisbee. Are you your calculator open?

[Jackie Heinrich]

Yes, please.

[Oz Perlman]

Open it up. What do we have? Is this an amortization calculator? She's doing my mortgage calculations. Is what I'm seeing.

[Diane Williams]

Okay. I'm sorry.

[Oz Perlman]

It's okay. I don't know what this one is. I can't do. This is like the button are too small. I can't see anything. I'm so sorry. I gotta use someone else because I can't see Put the brightness up. Grab yours. This one's big. Even though you're at 7% battery. I love it. Dina, give us a number and we're gonna go on stage. Come with me, Josh. Give us a number. And I want you to do this. I want you to give us a birthday. Come with me. You know what? Join me. Join me. We'll bring you up. Josh, you're gonna be on deck. Josh, sit down. This gentleman. Come with me.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh, wait.

[Oz Perlman]

I need you. Yeah. How are you? He keeps getting texts from his table saying he's going to get you good. Who is writing that? I'm going to bring you a microphone. I like you to stand here. Dina and Josh, you each get to help me. Dina, tell me the birthday of somebody you care about deeply. So take a moment with it. Tell us the birthday of someone you care about deeply. Go ahead.

[Jackie Heinrich]

August 17th.

[Oz Perlman]

Pause. Whose birthday is that?

[Jackie Heinrich]

My husband.

[Oz Perlman]

Everyone, go. Oh, good choice. I don't want to touch anything. Put in eight, 1 7, please. Eight, slow. Eight, 1 7. Freeze right there. Okay, have a seat. Thank you, Dina. In honor of Dina picking her spouse, which is a common choice, raise your hand if you are married as well. Okay, most of the room. Most of the room. I need to know why that woman just did this. Did anyone see that? That was a very strange reaction to a relatively binary question. That was a real time Facebook status. It's complicated. Dina loved that joke. Let's go over to someone new. That has not helped me yet. How about right over here? I'm going to go to the gentleman right next to Steve, who I loved earlier, who thought of Bora Bora. That was too obvious, Steve. Make it tough next time. Let's go to that gentleman in the green who felt so slighted. What is your name?

[Weijia Jiang]

Arden.

[Oz Perlman]

Arden. Arden, that's correct. Arden, quick, what's your wedding anniversary?

[Donald J. Trump]

May 26.

[Oz Perlman]

What was it?

[Donald J. Trump]

May 26.

[Oz Perlman]

Do times. Times 5, 26. But don't do equal yet. I'm doing the math. August 17 times May 26. Kidding. I don't know. Michelle thought I could do anything after John Fitzgerald Kennedy. You get to instill a little bit of yourself in this. Do you have a lucky number or something special to you? You do one digit or two digits? One digit. Bring it close to the heart. That's your heart. Yeah, I. We're not there yet. We're not there yet. And I want you to hit plus and hold it close to you and put in your lucky number and then walk out into this crowd to somebody that you do not know. Is that possible? You seem a social butterfly and I want to lock eyes. Look at me, sir. Look at me, sir. 500 times a thousand is 500. I'm a capitalist. I want two commas. I want a third comma. I want millions. What's your name?

[Donald J. Trump]

Colin. It's Colin.

[Oz Perlman]

Colin. One L or two?

[Donald J. Trump]

One.

[Oz Perlman]

All right. Michelle's not happy. Some of you, your memory is not as good. You don't know why that callback was funny. That's okay. Colin. Three digit number. Three digit number between 100 and 500. Don't do 1, 2, 3. You're better than that, Colin. You're better than that. You got a number? I didn't like it.

[Jonathan Karl]

Change.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay, there it is. There it is. Whisper with no microphone into his ear, your three digit number. Everybody make ambient ocean noises. Did you hear what he said? We're gonna hit the microphone right there. Right there. Have a seat for me, Colin. Please type in to this gentleman. Please type in a times and put in Collins. Three digits. You did, Colin, have a seat.

[Josh Dawsey]

Wonderful.

[Oz Perlman]

Did you hit equals? Not yet, please. Gotta be over 30 mil. It's gotta be over 30 million. Is it over 30 million?

[Weijia Jiang]

It is.

[Oz Perlman]

Okay. I thought that was lightly impressive, but. No, no, it's okay. I don't need the pity applause. Thank you, though, Bobby. Thank you. I'm ready. I'm ready for it. Oh, yeah. I'm not Rain Man. What do we get?

[Donald J. Trump]

Read the number.

[Susan Walsh]

Yeah.

[Donald J. Trump]

All right. 53 million.

[Oz Perlman]

Hold up. 53,670,600. I didn't leave enough room. Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna wrap around 53,670,682. $682. Bam. Have a seat. Give them a big round of applause. All my helpers. Dina, Josh. Way to fact check. I appreciate you. Did you hear me say dollars? Imagine that you go to your atm, that you swipe your card, that you type in your PIN code, or if I'm there, I do it for you. And suddenly in your checking account balance, $53,670,682. How would you react? Let me see some faces. Okay. I like how some of you didn't hear the key word. Checking account. This is not an interest bearing account. I like how one guy swore on his back like tariffs. Folks, you should deploy this capital like my man right over here, Todd Blanche looked at me like that was low. Tom, what did he sign? Tom, was it a 20, a 50 or 100? We couldn't see. Tom is the guy next to him. Tom is the guy next to him. What was it, a 20? It was a 20. Todd, are you still sitting on it?

[Wolf Blitzer]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

Todd, reach into the abyss. Stand up for me, please, sir. Todd, check the signature. Is this your bill that you took out of your pseudo money clip?

[Josh Dawsey]

Yes.

[Oz Perlman]

You marked it, but so did the government of the greatest country on earth with an eight digit serial number. Read us those digits one at a time, please switch to me. Switch to me. Please switch to me. Please switch to me. One digit at a time, please.

[Josh Dawsey]

536-706-882.

[Oz Perlman]

Thank you very much, everybody. Truly, this has been the honor of a lifetime. Thank you very much, everybody. Everybody.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Wow.

[Donald J. Trump]

Oh.

[Jackie Heinrich]

Everyone, thank you for a memorable night. Thank you, Mr. President, for coming to our dinner. Thank you, Os, for scaring all of us in this room. And thank you all for supporting the White House Correspondents association and the First Amendment. Thank you.

[Donald J. Trump]

Thank you all. This concludes the 2026 White House Correspondents Dinner. Again, our thanks to President Trump. We look forward to seeing you all next year at the Washington Hilton. Please travel safely. Have a good night. Sam.