'The show must go on,' Trump says at White House correspondents' dinner rescheduled after shooting
US President Donald Trump on Friday attended a rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner, three months after a shooting forced the cancellation of the original event, telling journalists, "As I said three months ago, the show must go on."
The dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in a scaled-down event attended by about 700 people. Guests entered through a single entrance and passed two ID checks, a detection dog, armed officers and security guards.
Trump entered the ballroom to polite applause and was thanked for his support by White House Correspondents' Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News. He later sat through more than an hour of awards presentations, including several for journalists whose reporting had been critical of him and his administration.
"Let's try this again," Jiang quipped while welcoming the guests. Referring to the shooting that disrupted the original dinner in April, she said the press corps "will not be intimidated" and "refuse to let an act of violence have the final word."
Trump had been expected to deliver the combative remarks he had planned for the April event, but he indicated early in his speech that he had scrapped them.
"This is really the largest group of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' people put together at one time," he said.
The rescheduled dinner included two additional awards, one for Secret Service agent Victor Gonzales, who was staffing a security checkpoint during the April incident and was struck in his protective vest. Another award was presented to the staff of the Washington Hilton hotel, where the original dinner was held.
The dress code was "black tie optional," with the evening featuring dinner, entertainment by mentalist Oz Pearlman, awards presentations and Trump's remarks.
The original dinner was cancelled in April after a gunman stormed a security checkpoint, forcing an evacuation of the venue. Jiang and other WHCA board members later worked to reschedule the event, saying they did not want the violence to define the gathering.
"We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for," Jiang said when announcing the rescheduling.
However, the decision to hold the dinner again has drawn criticism from some journalism and media ethics experts, who have questioned whether such events create an appearance of excessive closeness between journalists and the political figures they cover.
The dinner also comes amid heightened tensions between Trump and the media during his second term. His administration has faced criticism over actions against members of the White House press corps, regulatory measures involving media organisations and lawsuits.
The tensions escalated further this week after the government withdrew subpoenas seeking to compel three New York Times reporters to testify about their sources for stories concerning Trump's Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.
A coalition of press freedom groups and hundreds of former journalists had urged the WHCA to challenge Trump's administration more forcefully during the dinner.
"We believe it is hypocritical to celebrate the First Amendment in front of the man who relentlessly attacks it," the group said in a letter, urging the association to condemn actions it described as attempts to undermine press freedom.
