Donald Trump, who has regularly attacked the press over its coverage of him and his presidency, praised journalists for doing an “amazing job” as he addressed the White House correspondents’ dinner. It was the first time in either of his two terms that the US president has spoken at the annual event.
A day after the Trump administration abandoned, for now, over their coverage, the president attended the rescheduled White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington on Friday evening. The annual celebration of press freedom had been moved after the original event was scrapped in April when a man outside the ballroom.
Trump continued to attack the media on Friday. Insisting his war on Iran was going well, he told a roomful of journalists:
“Don’t believe the fake news.”
Trump and his officials joined hundreds of reporters at the Waldorf Astoria, a smaller venue than the vast Washington Hilton ballroom that was evacuated when shots were fired in April, in a suspected targeting of the president and his administration.
Before he spoke on Friday, a series of journalists who published revealing stories on the president and his administration — including the team behind the Wall Street Journal alleging he had sent a “bawdy” letter to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 — received awards on stage. Trump has over its reporting.
What did White House correspondents say about the press and the presidency?
Weija Jiang, outgoing president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, sought to underline the importance of duty for both those in the White House and the people who cover them.
“No matter how complicated or tense the relationship is between the press and the presidency, what we share is far more important than anything else and that is our duty: to serve the American people,”Jiang told the dinner.
Beginning his remarks, Trump claimed the speech he had originally prepared was
“gonna be a doozy”, suggesting he would pare back his attacks at the rescheduled event:
“Just like my presidency, the second time is always better – and the third time will be better yet … I’m only kidding.”
The usually celebratory dinner was dedicated in part to Victor Gonzales, a Secret Service officer who was shot and wounded at the original correspondents’ dinner in April while helping stop the gunman, and hotel staff who helped guests during the attack.
The man charged for the shooting, Cole Allen, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate the president.
An advance team spent weeks putting together a security plan for the new venue, and Sean Curran, the US Secret Service director, told reporters this week that agents were braced for trouble even at the black-tie dinner.
“We do expect bad people to show up,”he said.
Why was this Trump’s first speech at the dinner?
While it is customary for presidents to address the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, Friday’s speech was the first Trump has made at the event in either of his two terms. He boycotted the dinner throughout his first term, and has long attacked the press corps, including many of the journalists in the room.
“It matters that you came here tonight,”Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent at ABC News, told the president on stage.
Trump has sued multiple news organizations over their coverage of him, and routinely dismisses unfavorable stories as “fake news”.
Trump’s administration has gone further still, barring the Associated Press from the White House press pool and limiting other journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
Missing from the guest list this time: Melania Trump, the US first lady; JD Vance, the vice-president; and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. All had been present in April.
