While the 22nd amendment prevents President Donald Trump from pursuing a third term in the White House, he snuck in a joke about running again Friday during a re-do of the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
During the April 25 White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton, a shooter opened fire, effectively canceling the event. Cole Thomas Allen has been arrested in connection with the incident, though Audacy reported in May that a poll found that nearly a quarter of Americans believed the shooting was staged.
Since the shooting derailed the annual event for White House journalists and lawmakers, it was re-scheduled for Friday. NPR reported that it was held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington D.C.
According to the Washington Post, the president “attacked a slew of journalists and some of his favorite political foils at a slimmed-down redo,” of the event, bringing the audience to “stunned silence,” as he made jokes about transgender people. It also said that he pulled out a red Trump 2028 cap and joked that he would be running for another term.
Trump and his allies have continuously hinted at the president vying for another term in the White House, even though it isn’t Constitutional. Audacy even reported on Trump selling the 2028 hats last year. Trump turned 80 this year and would be 86 at the end of a third term in the White House if he were to run and win.
He’s also recently reignited discourse about election integrity. Trump has long claimed that the 2020 election he lost to former President Joe Biden was “stolen” from him, but thus far has not been able to provide evidence of this claim and other election interference claims.
Though he is popular among Republicans, especially his MAGA base, Trump’s approval rating has slipped in recent months since he announced that the U.S. had joined Israel to attack Iran. The ongoing war has resulted in high gas prices – as of Saturday AAA data showed that national average gas prices were over $4.10 per gallon and a recent poll indicates that Americans believe prices at the pump are even higher than the data suggests.
Silver Bulletin polling averages estimated Trump’s approval rating a -17.4% Friday, a bit higher than former Biden’s at the same point in his presidency. The Economist’s tracker of YouGov polling measured the president’s approval rating lower, at -23 as of July 21.
Trump has also had a contentious relationship with the press, often criticizing coverage he doesn’t like on social media. As the president addressed the room full of journalists, things were tense, The Washington Post reported.
“The fraught event put the president on the dais with reporters who have covered him aggressively. Trump rarely speaks to audiences that aren’t packed with his supporters, leading to an unusual dynamic in a ballroom of reporters who are professionally bound to maintain poker faces,” said the outlet.
However, that didn’t stop Trump from making jokes. In addition to his 2026 “announcement” he joked that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been involved in several weird animal incidents, “personally ran over the cow with his car,” to provide the crowd with beef tenderloin. Agencies that Kennedy oversees have recently been under scrutiny by the press amid an outbreak of the diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora.
