White House correspondents’ dinner returns under tighter security, higher tensions
President Donald Trump is set to attend the rescheduled White House correspondents’ dinner Friday, three months after shots rang out during the original April event.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “looks forward to finishing what he started” after a “despicable assassination attempt” halted the original dinner.
She said the event will look much different than it did in April.
What the event looks like now
The rescheduled dinner will take place at the Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Trump International Hotel, featuring less glitz, fewer people and no red carpet.
The size of the event is dropping from approximately 2,600 in April to about 700 on Friday. Security will also be tighter, with tensions between the White House and the media still running high after recent clashes.
Before speaking, Trump will sit through scholarships and journalism awards. Then, the White House says he will deliver a speech that is both “unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious.”
“It will be entertaining,” Leavitt told Politico after reading a draft. She noted, however, that the speech changed from the version Trump planned to deliver in April.
She said he will address the events in April with a mix of gravity and humor.
Are journalists attending?
The White House says most of Trump’s cabinet and senior staff will attend Friday’s event, with Leavitt noting anyone missing has a scheduling conflict — they aren’t missing it due to a lack of enthusiasm for the rescheduled event.
Many members of the press corps appear far less enthusiastic.
One White House reporter told Politico they would go if they were in town but “I don’t know — it’s just exhausting.”
Another prominent veteran journalist said those attending Friday are “pretty unhappy about being there.” They said there’s a “tension and unease” in the press ranks over the president’s treatment of the media.
Earlier this month, the FBI subpoenaed four New York Times reporters over a story about Air Force One security, but the Justice Department dropped the orders Thursday.
The president also regularly blasts the “fake news media,” has called a reporter a “very obnoxious person” and described another as “piggy.”
The initial dinner and assassination attempt
Even before the shooting, the dinner faced criticism, with some veteran journalists asking the White House Correspondents Association to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
They said the dinner “cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on a daily basis.”
Despite that, thousands attended the dinner, which was abruptly cut short when shots rang out.
Authorities say Cole Allen opened fire inside the Washington Hilton hotel while Trump and other government officials were present.
Secret Service officer Victor Gonzales was shot, but the bullet struck his protective vest, allowing him to continue responding to the threat.
The suspect, who officials say was Allen, was tackled to the ground and later charged with attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm with intent to commit a felony, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
Allen pleaded not guilty in May.
Gonzales and members of the Washington Hilton staff will receive the President’s Award for Exceptional Service during Friday’s dinner.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
