White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner!
Washington, Jul 24 (EFE).-
President Donald Trump returned on Friday to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, almost three months after it was rescheduled due to an assassination attempt against him which led to a change in venue and tighter security measures.
“The attempted mass murder at the Washington Hilton, a very serious situation, was an assault on our democracy itself,” Trump said during his more than 70-minute speech, referring to the Apr. 26 attack, when an armed man, identified as Cole Allen, tried to storm the ballroom where the dinner was being held and a shootout with security officers led to the evacuation of the president.
The president’s speech was peppered with barbs against the press. In one of them, he said that “this place (the dinner) is really the largest group of ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ people ever put together at one time,” while joking that some attendees were disappointed because the April attack interrupted the speech he had prepared to deliver.
The dinner was held this time at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, which in the past belonged to the Trump family, instead of the Washington Hilton, the traditional venue for the gala.
Attendance also fell sharply, from some 2,600 guests in April to approximately 700, while the Secret Service reinforced security measures and limited access to the venue, where all attendees had to present a QR code to enter.
Trump once again joked about the protective measures taken for the event, saying “it was not easy finding shoes to go along with your bulletproof vest,” before adding that many attendees did not want to wear it because they “would rather die than look 20 pounds heavier.”
During the dinner, awards were presented to journalists from The Wall Street Journal, AP, CNN, and The New York Times, as well as a career achievement award to Susan Walsh of AP and Melissa Young of ABC. Secret Service agent Victor Gonzales, injured during the April attack, was also honored.
White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Weijia Jiang also addressed Trump, saying, “When we ask questions, you push back. You give us answers, and we push back. You have always been a deal guy. Well, that’s the deal. The First Amendment is a done deal.”
The dinner was held without the presence of other officials who attended the previous gala, such as First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The April incident raised profound concerns about the security of the dinner, as the suspect had booked a room at the hotel to stay inside the building and bypass access controls.
Trump also defended the construction of the new White House ballroom, a project that was initially blocked by a federal judge and whose status is being reviewed by an appeals court.
The president said that construction was ahead of schedule and on budget and denied that he was building it for himself. EFE
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