President Donald Trump took some time to compliment former President Barack Obama during his WHCD dinner remarks.
The rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner went off without a hitch, which means the president got to make the remarks that were cut short by a gunman at the previous event. This includes a mention of Obama during the 2011 dinner.
Watch:
Trump:
I have been here actually quite a few times. People don’t realize it. 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.
And I have watched this clip thousands of… pic.twitter.com/xMDY2xGVtC
— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 25, 2026
“I have been here actually quite a few times. People don’t realize it. 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,” Trump said. “I was sitting with Melania at a table, and you had Brooklyn Decker, supermodel, at a table right next door, and she- I really always will like her. She’s married to a great tennis player, Andy [Roddick], and I have watched this clip thousands of times. They keep playing it because they think that was the 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,” he continued as the crowd laughed. “And Obama was nice. He… you know, it’s amazing how things work out. 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… so he wasn’t really wrong. But no, he was respectful. He was good. 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 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 a good time, but I did have,” he added. “I always remember Brooklyn, she was so angry, she was much angrier than me, and they really weren’t; it was just one of those things.”
