Critics Fire Back After Van Jones Calls President Trump’s WHCA Speech ‘Mean And Small And Not Funny’

In a comeback speech months after one of several assassination attempts against him, President Donald Trump delivered a rousing speech that drew laughter and positive reviews from his political fans and detractors alike.

But some in the media couldn’t resist taking shots at the president, even if they seemed to be rewriting history in the process.

According to Breitbart, CNN’s Van Jones offered a puzzling review of Trump’s generally good-natured remarks:

Jones said, “Well, I think the worst thing you can say is it just wasn’t funny at all. It just wasn’t funny. It was mean and small, but you can be mean and small and funny. This was mean and small and not funny. And he didn’t talk about any American besides himself and his enemies. There are people at home who can’t figure out how to pay for gas, or people at home who worry about their nephew who’s serving overseas. There’s people at home who have real problems who would love to see somebody reflect their reality and maybe make fun of some of their enemies, some of their problems. He missed the entire opportunity to talk to those people, and he just he started off as kind of like cuddly Care Bear Trump. And the internet is like rabid grizzly Trump, but just kind of wandered around in the backyard like, you know, attacking things and then wandered off the stage.”

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Plenty of others had a different assessment:

🔥 LOL! President Trump: "I could never have done the speech that I had ready, just a short while ago. Oh, that was going to be a DOOZY! I was so psyched. I was going to RIP people!"

"I just wouldn't want to do that. But we'll do a little ripping, if you don't mind!" pic.twitter.com/OTECDNQBPc

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 25, 2026

President Trump goes off-script at the beginning of the Correspondents' Dinner tonight.

He's just a naturally funny guy! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/xPkkXdQFgH

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) July 25, 2026

But there seemed to be a theme on CNN:

Phillip: I think for Trump, this was not funny. No, Trump can be very funny. But this speech was like a low energy retread of a lot of old stuff. And it just wasn't it wasn't his normal humor. pic.twitter.com/EooN4iBWp1

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 25, 2026

The Hill noted that Trump got in a few shots against the network, too:

The president repeated his criticism that Collins, CNN’s chief White House correspondent and anchor, “never smiles.” He first made this comment earlier this year after Collins pressed him about justice for the victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“She never smiles,” he said in his Friday evening speech. “I said, ‘Kaitlin, do you ever smile?’ Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.”

But his targets weren’t strictly political, as the article later explains:

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Another joke about Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got one of the louder laughs of the night.

“I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloins, very special beef, and I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy, who’s right here, personally ran over the cow in his car, and he cut it up and he brought it here for you to eat tonight, so it’s very fresh,” Trump said.

Here’s a clip of Jones’ remarks, along with one of the many disapproving reactions it received: