Promises made, promises kept. When an attempted assassination derailed the White House Correspondents' Dinner three months ago, a calm Donald Trump pledged minutes later to attend the dinner that the WHCA would plan to replace it.
Tonight, the WHCA and Trump will try again to share an evening of camaraderie, perhaps even more genuine this time after the shared trauma of April's shocking attack. ABC News reports that the dinner will take place tonight, only this time with a new item added to its agenda:
President Donald Trump will attend the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Friday night, the White House said, after the annual dinner ended abruptly three months ago when shots rang out.
"Alongside all of you members of the media, the president looks forward to finishing what he started before a despicable assassination attempt derailed the original event back in April," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. ...
The White House Correspondents' Association announced on Tuesday that it will present a special award, the President's Award for Exceptional Service, during Friday night's dinner to [Secret Service officer Victor] Gonzales and the staff of the Washington Hilton.
"Officer Gonzales played a significant role when he ran toward danger so that thousands of others could make it home safely," Weijia Jiang, who presided over the April dinner as WHCA president, said in a statement. "His courage stemmed from a dedication to service, which we are looking forward to honoring this week."
Gonzales deserves his moment of recognition, as do the Hilton's employees. However, the presentation won't take place at the Hilton. The WHCA and the White House have quietly moved Nerd Prom to the Waldorf Astoria instead. The Secret Service has already begun staging for the event, USSS chief Sean Curran told reporters earlier this week, especially in light of new threats from Iran:
U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the current threat environment is the most challenging he's ever seen.
"The numbers at this agency, and certainty I've never seen in my 24-year-career, they're off the charts," Curran said in response to a question from ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas at a media briefing on Wednesday.
"I think the environment has become very volatile and that's just across the board, not just to our protectees but local officials. The threat picture and environment is as large as I've ever seen it," Curran said. ...
Ahead of Friday's rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner, Curran said they are taking everything into account, including an analysis of how buildings might survive explosions at the site.
With that in mind, perhaps the White House had an opportunity to rethink the idea of having most of the line of succession at the dais for Take 2. Fox News reported yesterday that a few notables will be absent, although the White House says that it's due to scheduling conflicts. The event has apparently been scaled down overall:
While much of Trump's Cabinet will attend, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not be there. A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital their absences are due to prior commitments. ...
Jiang announced the rescheduled date was decided by the WHCA board in an email to association members, sharing the rescheduled event will be a more "intimate gathering."
"This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program. It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence. As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above," Jiang added.
"Prior commitments," eh? Like the commitment to not having all your eggs in one basket? That's a wise choice, and probably the choice that should have been made ahead of the first event. Vance and Rubio have more pressing duties – Vance with his newborn child, and Rubio dealing with Iran and the diplomatic snarls of the war. Pete Hegseth will attend, however, as will most of the rest of the Cabinet. FBI Director Kash Patel will once again be on hand, hopefully just to enjoy himself this time rather than take charge of a crime scene. One interesting and notable RSVP is UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, whose dressing-down of Iran's envoy to Turtle Bay probably still requires daily salve applications.
The absence of the First Lady may be the most notable, albeit understandable, absence from the festivities. Melania was clearly traumatized at the first dinner, then mocked by some media outlets for her reaction to a third attempt on her husband's life. It's hard to blame her for taking a pass this time.
The event will likely get a lot more live attention tonight, thanks to the near-disaster from April, but let's hope that the only notable outcomes will be a few bad jokes and a warm embrace of Gonzales by the crowd. The Secret Service had better hope that their new security plan takes into account the guests already staying at the hotel this time, and that they execute identification checks with a little more vigor this time around. This event has never been my cup of tea, given how it encourages journalists to act like Hollywood celebrities on a red carpet, but I am sincerely grateful that they're staging it again as a show of defiance to radicals intent on shutting down what should be unifying events. I wish them all a lovely – and unremarkable – evening.
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