Stripped-down White House correspondents dinner honours journalistic excellence
President Donald Trump did not attend.
There was no president or comedian, but what remained at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner were the journalists and the First Amendment.
The stripped-down festivities were a reflection of the somber tone in Washington at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, in which he has battled with the press on multiple fronts and wrested from the association the power to decide which outlets have the most access to Trump.
Mr Trump’s deeper involvement in politics began after then-president Barack Obama roasted the New Yorker’s presidential ambitions during the 2011 correspondents’ dinner. Mr Trump skipped the annual gala during his first term, and his absence had been widely expected this year.
The association scrapped a scheduled appearance at this year’s dinner by comedian Amber Ruffin after she referred to the new administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers” on a podcast last month.
The organisation, a non-profit that helps White House journalists provide robust coverage of the presidency, decided to forgo the event’s traditional levity and focus on celebrating journalism.
Association president Eugene Daniels said in an email to the organisation’s 900 members last month that the dinner was meant to “honour journalistic excellence and a robust, independent media covering the most powerful office in the world”.
The event, which raises money for journalism scholarships, remains a highlight of the Washington social calendar. The ballroom at the Washington Hilton was still packed with journalists, newsmakers and even a few celebrities.
“We’ve been tested and attacked,” Mr Daniels told the audience. “But every single day our members get up, they run to the White House – plane, train, automobile – with one mission: holding the powerful accountable.”
He later showed a video of past presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, who addressed the dinner, saying the association invites the president to demonstrate the importance of a free press in safeguarding democracy.
Mr Trump counter-programmed the last dinner during his first term, holding a rally to compete with the event in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the 2020 dinner.
This year, he had just flown back from Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome and had no events on Saturday night.
The Trump administration has had multiple skirmishes with the press in recent months. The FCC is investigating several media companies, the administration is working to shut down Voice of America and other government-run outlets, and The Associated Press has sued the administration for reducing its access to events because it has not renamed the Gulf of Mexico in line with an executive order.
A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction ordering the administration to stop blocking the AP from presidential events. In response, the White House adopted a new press policy that gives the administration sole discretion over who gets to question Mr Trump and sharply curtails the access of three news agencies, including AP, that serve billions of readers around the world.
For many years previously, the correspondents’ association determined which news organisations had access to limited space events.
