Washington — President Trump is speaking at take two of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday night, after April’s event was upended when an armed assailant rushed through a security checkpoint and the U.S. Secret Service opened fire on the gunman.
Three months after the suspect was stopped outside the Washington Hilton’s ballroom, Mr. Trump attended the White House Correspondents’ Association’s do-over of the dinner at a different Washington hotel — the Waldorf Astoria, which was once a Trump Organization hotel.
The event highlighted the president’s sometimes-tense relationship with the press. Mr. Trump has sparred with many of the journalists who spoke or accepted awards during the dinner — though he didn’t visibly express frustration while seated on stage, and he shook the award-winners’ hands. The president smiled as CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer described the fallout from The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Mr. Trump’s past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
“This has not been an easy evening,” Mr. Trump later joked during his speech, referring to the award-winners.
Mr. Trump said the assembled journalists included “a lot of people that I like, some I don’t like at all, but I respect most of them.” He needled and joked about the press, though he told the audience he scrapped some sharp-tongued material that he was planning to deliver in April: “I was going to rip people,” he said, calling it “such a letdown.” At times, the president struggled to get laughs when jabbing his political opponents or delivering rally-style material.
At other points, the president joked about his penchant for drawing press attention. “You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished,” Mr. Trump said, later donning a “Trump 2028” hat in what he cast as a bid to help out the news business.
Weijia Jiang, the correspondents’ association’s most recent past president and CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, said at one point during the event: “There is … an existential difference between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it. One is healthy and it makes all of us better. The other is exactly what the founders hoped to prevent.”
Mentalist Oz Pearlman is scheduled to perform, after his set during April’s dinner was called off due to the attack.
“We can’t wait to see what you reveal, but you can skip the part where you guess the president’s phone number because half the reporters in this room already have it,” Jiang said.
Secret Service officials have warned that nationwide threats have reached an unprecedented level, with agents opening roughly 10,000 protective intelligence cases since January — a nearly 40% increase from the same period last year. The Secret Service has been preparing for the makeup dinner, and Secret Service Director Sean Curran told reporters in a briefing Wednesday that every venue is reevaluated before every presidential visit.
“We will always evaluate every site, and right now we have an advance team there, and they will take back, and they will set up a plan to set that site up for success, just like we did at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Hilton,” Curran said. “That is a success.”
On Friday night, the White House Correspondents’ Association presented an award for exceptional service to the Secret Service officer who was struck in his protective vest at the April dinner, along with the entire Washington Hilton staff.
“I do think their bravery should be recognized, and I’m really looking forward to giving out those two awards,” Jiang said.
Jiang said Friday night’s program is “very much the same” as April’s, although the size will be smaller.
“There are enhanced security measures,” Jiang told C-SPAN. “We have a private security firm that has worked closely with Secret Service. There are new measures that every single dinner guest has to take.”
Attendees will have to present a unique QR code with a government-issued photo ID to get through ticketing, and go through layers of security to enter the ballroom, she said. The association worked extensively with the Secret Service.
“It was incredibly important to have the safety of our guests to be the top priority,” she said.
