Trump slams his own White House Correspondents speech

President Donald Trump openly criticized the speechwriters who prepared his remarks for the rescheduled White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Friday, July 24, 2026, after a series of jokes failed to land with the audience. The event, held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington D.C., saw the president deliver a roughly hourlong address that was previewed as unifying but frequently drew silence.

The tension became most apparent when Trump attempted a joke linking congressional term limits to a senator's age. He recounted a story about a senator receiving a text from his wife asking him to come upstairs and make love, to which the senator replied, "I can't do both." The punchline was met with quiet confusion. Trump, acknowledging the poor reception, then mocked the material he was given. He asked the audience if they understood the joke before declaring, "I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole freaking stupid speech that they wrote."

While the speech included his advocacy for congressional term limits, Trump used much of his time to criticize members of the media in attendance. He specifically targeted...