President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been rescheduled and relocated to a more secure hotel property, which his company used to manage.
In April, the event at the Washington Hilton was cut short when a gunman, whom police have identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, charged a security checkpoint. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, and two firearms offenses, CBS News reported.
Trump posted on Truth Social regarding the event’s new time and place, “In a sign of Strength and Fortitude, it was just announced that The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which violently ended rather abruptly on April 25th, will be rescheduled to July 24th.”
“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling. I was asked to be there, and speak, by Weijia Jiang, President of The White House Correspondents’ Association, and have accepted,” he continued.
“I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out. In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket! Interestingly, the location will be The Waldorf Astoria, on Pennsylvania Avenue, a Building and Ballroom that I built,” Trump concluded.
President Trump on the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner: pic.twitter.com/rJz7bRV82r
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 2, 2026
The Waldorf Astoria was previously the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which the Trump Organization had leased and developed from the Old Post Office building.
The Trump Organization sold its interest in the five-star property to the Waldorf Astoria in 2022.
Jiang, a CBS News senior White House correspondent, said in an email to the Correspondents’ Association members that the rescheduled event would be a “more intimate gathering” and feature “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures,” CBS News said.
“This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program. It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence,” Jiang wrote. “As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.”
I’m proud to share the WHCD will be held on 07/24. Our first dinner is part of history, as will be the WHCA’s response. We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on America 250 and everything we stand for.
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) June 2, 2026
“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” she added.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him.
The Washington Hilton was the same location outside of which John Hinckley shot then-President Ronald Reagan and three others in March 1981, just two months into his time in office.
Reagan was hit by one of the rounds Hinckley fired after it ricocheted off a limousine and entered beneath his left armpit, coming close to his heart.
Reagan survived the assassination attempt and went on to serve two full terms in the White House.
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