Full Breakdown
Trump Returns to Rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner
7/25/2026, 3:15:28 AM
Rescheduled Dinner Details
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, originally halted on April 25 when a gunman breached a security checkpoint, was held on Friday at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The venue’s ballroom seats roughly 700 people—about one-quarter the capacity of the Washington Hilton ballroom that hosted the event for decades. President Donald Trump delivered a speech, and the ceremony honored Secret Service Officer Victor Gonzales, the only officer wounded in the April attack, as well as Washington Hilton staff who preserved thousands of uneaten meals for local shelters.
Background: April Shooting and Press Tensions
During the April 25 dinner, a 31-year-old gunman, Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, rushed through a checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the ballroom. He was shot after exchanging fire with law-enforcement officers. Reuters reported that Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges that include attempting to assassinate the president.
Relations between the Trump administration and the media have been strained for years. The president has repeatedly labeled critical outlets “the enemy of the people,” filed lawsuits against The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ABC and CBS, and the Justice Department has pursued subpoenas of journalists in leak investigations. A recent withdrawal of subpoenas against New York Times reporters was announced after a federal judge’s pushback.
Data & Statistics
- Venue capacity: ~700 guests at Waldorf Astoria vs. >3,000 at Washington Hilton.
- Attendees: President Trump, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (among others).
- Absent: First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Official Statements & Responses
The association’s president, Weijia Jiang, told C-SPAN that the program would be “very much the same” as the original dinner, aside from its more intimate size.
Verbatim Quotes
- “What will be different is the size. It’s a much more intimate gathering,” — Weijia Jiang, correspondents’ association president
- “Many people in this room, if we’re going to be honest about it, have done it,” — General Todd Blanche, acting attorney
- “We're not after journalists. We're after leakers. We're after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists,” — Donald Trump, dinner with president
What’s Next
The WHCA will continue its annual awards and scholarship presentations, and the White House has indicated that future security protocols will remain in place for presidential events.
