When Donald Trump stood before the journalists at the postponed dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association, everyone expected heavy artillery to come down on the media. They got a mix - an hour-long speech that jumped from sharp insults to conciliatory tones, like someone who cannot decide whether he came to punish or to embrace.

He called some of the journalists victims of „Trump derangement syndrome” and directed personal insults at some reporters and Democratic politicians. He joked that the media industry will collapse once he leaves, because they will have nothing to write about. And then he put on a cap reading „Trump 2028” and announced that he intends to run for president again.

The „Trump 2028” cap is no trifle. The US Constitution clearly limits presidents to two terms - but when a president publicly wears the idea of a third on his head, that is no longer a joke, but a test of how sturdy the institutions are. How many times have we seen in the Balkans how „just one more term” grows into a permanent habit?

Free speech - and guards at every entrance

In the same speech Trump also stressed his respect for free speech: „We do not settle disagreements with bullets, but through open and fierce debate. No deranged loser with a gun will ever change that.”

The words sound fine, but the context contradicts them. The gathering was held under heightened security, three months after an April shooting forced the cancellation of the original event. This time around 700 guests came - against the usual over 2,000 - with two security checkpoints and a strict police presence. Free speech with metal detectors on every door.

Trump gave an award to Secret Service agent Victor Gonzalez, injured in the April attack. The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, is charged with attempted assassination.

Also appearing at the dinner were Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, acting head of the Justice Department Todd Blanche, FBI director Kash Patel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The whole government in one place, at an event dedicated to journalism - and yet the loudest message of the evening was a single cap with a number the Constitution forbids.