Trump returns to public events, delivering profane speech

President Donald Trump said Friday that he was eager to deliver his first public speech since he was hustled from a hotel stage Saturday, after an attempted shooter breached the perimeter of the White House correspondents’ dinner.

And the president picked a familiar stop for his return address: The Villages, a retirement community in Florida and a longtime Republican stronghold.

“They want me to be in a secure place. I said, ‘What’s more secure than The Villages?’” Trump said to applause, as he kicked off a 94-minute event that featured several guests — and was peppered with Trump’s profane jokes and complaints, including about the president’s microphone setup.

“Turn up the mic!” the president said, criticizing the logistics. “I don’t believe in paying people that do a bad job. … I’m screaming my ass off.”

White House and security officials have spent the past week reassessing their protocols for presidential safety, with Trump insisting that he would not stay isolated after the latest attempt on his life. He also joked with reporters this week that he would not wear a bulletproof vest because of the optics.

“I don’t know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office.

Friday’s event in Florida — with Trump speaking under a banner that read “Golden Age for your Golden Years” — was framed around the administration’s move last year to reduce taxes on social security benefits, a policy sought by older Americans. Trump veered between prepared remarks on his policies and unscripted asides, with the tone of the event often resembling one of his 2024 campaign rallies.

The speech came about a week after the incident at the White House correspondents’ dinner, when Trump struck a measured tone immediately following the attempted shooting. “In light of this evening’s events, I asked that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our difference peacefully,” Trump said in the White House briefing room late Saturday night.

He also said he would scrap the “most inappropriate speech” he planned to give at the correspondents’ dinner, roasting the journalists whom the president often treats as his foils, and instead strike a conciliatory tone at a potential makeup dinner.

“I think I’m gonna be probably very nice. I’ll be very boring the next time,” Trump said.

Far from hemmed in Friday, Trump seemed unburdened. He mocked Democrats in crass terms, including one unnamed lawmaker that he said was a “sleazebag,” for focusing on affordability ahead of the midterm elections.

“They’ve got one good line of [expletive],” the president said, blaming Democrats for policies that he said had led to inflation. Trump also polled the crowd on which nickname he should use to mock former President Joe Biden, who Trump said had “set a record, most falls in history.”

Trump also gestured toward some of his policies, saying that his administration was defending entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, before acknowledging that he wasn’t particularly focused on the details.

“We have a man here who knows more about Medicaid, Medicare, medical crap than any human being. Where’s Dr. Oz? Where the hell are you, stand up,” Trump said, referring to Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “It’s the most boring trip I’ve ever made. He’s telling me about Medicare, Medicaid. All I want to do is take care of you, I don’t care. I said, ‘You work out the details.’”

He performed his impression of a transgender weightlifter that he said first lady Melania Trump had begged him not to do.

“She hates it when I do the thing on weightlifting, she says it’s so unpresidential,” Trump said, before pivoting to his affection for dancing to “Y.M.C.A.,” a song by the Village People. “And she hates when I dance to what’s sometimes referred to as the gay national anthem.”

Trump also teased Phil McGraw, a TV personality and Trump ally, saying that he was “sort of doing him a favor” by agreeing to appear on the “Dr. Phil Podcast” in 2024.

“I said, ‘I’m hotter than he is, why the hell should I do his show?’” Trump said.

McGraw took the stage and spoke for several minutes, praising Trump and steering the conversation back to the looming election.

“We’ve got midterms coming up,” McGraw said, “and you need to make sure that not only you vote, but find 10 people and make sure that they vote.”