--- title: White House Correspondents Dinner: Obama's Final Speech description: President Obama gave his eighth and final White House Correspondents Dinner this Saturday. canonical: https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-01T03:19:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:10:17.335Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Gives Last White House Correspondents Dinner Speech og:description: He delivered a few jabs at the candidates in the 2016 election. og:url: https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac1ef06f1aff9bb5/69889157bc6cfcf9283dccbb/correspondents-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barack Obama Addresses White House Correspondents Dinner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Gives Last White House Correspondents Dinner Speech twitter:description: He delivered a few jabs at the candidates in the 2016 election. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac1ef06f1aff9bb5/69889157bc6cfcf9283dccbb/correspondents-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Gives His Last White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 1, 2016 3:19 AM UTC  President Barack Obama speaks at last year's White House Correspondent's Association Gala on April 25, 2015 in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama speaks at last year's White House Correspondent's Association Gala on April 25, 2015 in Washington, D.C.Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 1, 2016 3:19 AM UTC President Obama delivered laughs in Washington D.C. at a dinner honoring journalists Saturday, jabbing the media and the 2016 presidential candidates. Obama was giving his eighth and final [White House Correspondents’ Assocation dinner](http://time.com/4312740/allison-janney-cj-cregg-white-house-press-briefing-correspondents-dinner-west-wing/) and the president is known for his comedic delivery at the event, where he often pokes fun at himself and the year’s top headlines. Front and center at this year’s dinner was the upcoming presidential election. First up was Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who though behind front-runner Hillary Clinton has [electrified young voters across the country](http://time.com/4038080/the-gospel-of-bernie/), carrying several state primaries. “Bernie, you look like a million bucks or to put in terms you’ll actually understand you look like 37,000 small donations of $27 each,” Obama said, adding a joke about his daughter Malia, 15, wanting to go to the music festival Burning Man. “Bernie might have let her go, not us.” The [Republican nomination fight](http://time.com/4292904/downballot-republicans-senate-house/) took a hit, with Obama saying that things on the other side of the aisle were a bit more “loose” and cracking a joke about attempts to nominate House Speaker Paul Ryan, noting that steak and fish were the dinner options “and a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan.” Obama questioned why [Republican frontrunner Donald Trump](http://time.com/4308826/donald-trump-time-100-gala-john-kasich-ted-cruz/) wasn’t in attendance, referencing the time he roasted Trump at the 2011 dinner. “You know I’m going to talk about Trump, although I’m mad he’s not here, we had so much fun the last time,” he said. “Is this dinner too tacky for the Donald, what could he possibly be doing instead?” _Nightly Show_ host Larry Wilmore, this year’s host, joined in on the fun, earning laughs on everything from [Harriet Tubman’s placement on the $20 bill](http://time.com/4306786/age-of-jackson-tubman-20/) to Trump. “Guys I am not surprised Donald Trump is happening to America, because I watch movies, ” Wilmore joked. “Every time there’s a black president something always comes to destroy the Earth.” The President concluded the speech by thanking the media and uttering a final good bye: “Obama, out.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/"},"headline":"President Obama Gives His Last White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech","datePublished":"2016-05-01T03:19:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:10:17.335Z","description":"He delivered a few jabs at the candidates in the 2016 election","url":"https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/","keywords":["White House","2016 Election topic","Barack Obama","Donald Trump","White House Correspondents Dinner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac1ef06f1aff9bb5/69889157bc6cfcf9283dccbb/correspondents-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac1ef06f1aff9bb5/69889157bc6cfcf9283dccbb/correspondents-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama Addresses White House Correspondents Dinner","caption":"Barack Obama Addresses White House Correspondents Dinner","creditText":"Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4313562/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-final/","name":"President Obama Gives His Last White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech"}}]}] ```