Donald Trump will address a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association (WCHA) dinner on Friday three months after the original event was abruptly halted after an armed assailant tried to storm it, with the alleged aim of assassinating him.
The rearranged dinner has been condemned as “hypocritical” by retired journalists and press freedom groups, who are urging the association to use it to confront Trump over his administration’s intensified attacks on the media.
The US president’s appearance at a significantly downsized gathering is being presented by organizers and Trump himself as an act of defiance intended to reaffirm the principles of free speech, as guaranteed by the US constitution’s first amendment.
Weijia Jiang, the WCHA’s president, has called the decision to restage the dinner “a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence”.
But a letter from eight media campaign groups and signed by ۵۲۰ journalists highlights the urgency of press freedom issues, singling out subpoenas recently issued demanding the phone records of New York Times journalists and their relatives after the newspaper reported security breaches on the new Air Force One jet, a gift from Qatar.
The groups – which include the Committee to Protect Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists – also condemn Trump for threatening to revoke the licenses of broadcasters that displease him.
“We believe it is hypocritical to celebrate the first amendment in front of the man who relentlessly attacks it,” the letter says. “We urge the WHCA to condemn the administration’s actions from the podium and pledge to fight all attempts by his administration to undermine this core pillar of a functioning democracy.”
Friday’s dinner will be held at the Waldorf Astoria – formerly the Trump International hotel – after being switched from the Washington Hilton, a larger venue which has staged the annual gathering for many years.
It will go ahead with enhanced security after the original event was thrown into chaos when a California resident Cole Tomas Allen, unsuccessfully tried to force his way into the ballroom where hundreds of journalists, along with Trump and his cabinet, were eating.
He was tackled by Secret Service agents, one of whom was wounded in an exchange of fire, in an area one floor above where the dinner was taking place.
Trump and other VIPs were evacuated from the scene and the dinner abandoned, after an initial attempt to resume. Allen was subsequently charged with trying to assassinate the president and assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
Organizers say the setting this time will be “more intimate” than the original, which was Trump’s first appearance at the annual WCHA dinner in either of his two presidencies. The original dinner was abandoned before Trump delivered his speech, which had been keenly awaited to see if would renew his verbal assaults on a group that he regularly attacks as “the fake news”.
Trump has hailed the decision to stage a rearranged dinner “a sign of strength and fortitude”.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said he had yet to decide whether to give his originally intended speech.
“I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out,” he wrote. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”
Notable absentees on Friday will be the first lady, Melania Trump, the vice-president, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, all of whom attended the original dinner.
Fox News Digital, citing a White House spokesperson, said their absences were due to “prior commitments”.
Other members of the cabinet are expected to attend, the same outlet reported.
