As hundreds of journalists urge a forceful statement about Donald Trump‘s attacks on the media at this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, another question is just how the president will handle it all.
It’s been more than a decade since Trump attended the dinner, and he has boycotted and even counter-programmed the event in the years since then. But he decided to go this year, writing on Truth Social, “In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
In fact, the WHCA is not honoring Trump at the dinner, as he also claimed, but by tradition invites the president. Like his predecessors, Trump will have a speaking slot, time in which presidents traditionally, offer about 15 minutes of schtick — some humor aimed at the media, some at rivals, and some self-deprecation about his own administration.
Most famously, Barack Obama in 2011 devoted a portion of his remarks to an extended riff on Trump, who was in the room. The then-reality host and future president looked none too happy about it.
And unlike some of his predecessors, Trump’s moments of self-deprecation only go so far.
This year, at the February dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an elite Washington group, Trump’s remarks were, according to the Washington Post, “unapologetic and awkward, with barbs aimed at political adversaries, grievances over perceived slights and punch lines that at times fell flat before a bipartisan audience.”
In 2016, appearing with his rival Hillary Clinton at the annual Al Smith Foundation Dinner, he told jokes before saying, “This is corny stuff.” Eventually, he seemed to have had enough, before going into campaign mode with attacks on Clinton, breaking with the spirit of the event. He got some boos for it.
“I don’t think this president is really that enamored of being self-deprecating,” said Tim Naftali, a presidential historian and senior research scholar at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. “This would be an opportunity for him to ask Dennis Miller to write material for him, but I think he will ask Steven Miller instead.”
The White House did not respond to questions of whether Trump is getting assistance in writing his remarks. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump looks forward to attending the dinner with our great First Lady, and he will give an exceptional speech. It will be must-see TV!”
There is also the question of how he will handle criticism of his attacks on the media. The WHCA president this year, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, also will deliver remarks. In past years, WHCA presidents have taken the opportunity to criticize various issues related to White House access, among other things.
This time around, though, access is not so much of an issue, as Trump speaks to reporters sometimes multiple times a day and, lately, has been taking calls from those who have his personal cell number.
Rather, what has alarmed First Amendment advocates has been the relentlessness of Trump’s attacks on media, coupled with regulatory threats by him and his FCC chair Brendan Carr, who also will be there Saturday. The second-term pressure on media companies has led to concerns not just about capitulation by corporate bosses but also self-censorship at news organizations.
This week, a group of more than 400 journalists sent a letter to the WHCA, calling on the association to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.” Among those signing were Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson and Ann Curry. One media outlet, HuffPost, is boycotting the event altogether.
“We refuse to celebrate journalism and share laughs with a ruler who holds such a dreadful record,” HuffPost editor in chief Whitney Snyder wrote in a statement earlier this month.
If Trump faces strong statements of criticism, it would not be too much of a surprise for the president to go off script and go off on the news media, once again.
Still, there have been instances where he has offered words of praise.
At the 2018 Gridiron Dinner, an annual white-tie event held by a more exclusive journalism organization, the president attended, telling the D.C. elite, bureau chiefs and White House reporters gathered, “A lot of you cover things very squarely, and there are few professions that I respect more … . I want to thank the press for all that you do to support and sustain our democracy. I mean that.”
At that event, Trump even joked how his staff worried how well he would do with self-deprecating humor, telling the crowd, “I told them not to worry — nobody can do self-deprecating humor better than I can.”
Like at other events, he got serious about his rivals, this time Joe Biden, who was then pondering a presidential run. “I would kick his ass like no other. Oh, would he be easy,” Trump said.
It should be noted that the Gridiron doesn’t allow cameras, unlike the Correspondents’ Dinner, which will be covered on C-SPAN and cable news networks, and clips will live on for days on social media.
“I think it will be interesting to see how the president handles this,” Naftali said. “He has very bad memories where he was being teased by Barack Obama. If he wants to succeed on Saturday, he has to have the ability to tease himself and be teased.”
Naftali added, “Who knows? He is a showman, and so we will see how he handles it. But the fact that he has agreed to go is interesting. And why now? He has got an even worse relationship with the media this time around, and yet here he is turning up at this event.” While there has been a push by some media figures to boycott the event, others like Naftali doubt that only feels into “the toxic narrative that MAGA feeds about journalists.”
“He is the one putting himself in the awkward position; it is not the journalists,” he said. “They are committed to freedom of speech and the First Amendment.”
Julie Mason, the SiriusXM host and former White House correspondent, wrote via email, “I think we mostly expect a ritual airing of grievances. Things aren’t going great for this administration right now, and the press is a reliable scapegoat.”
She added, “It’s strange the president decided to break his moratorium on attending this year, but I wish the critics would stop keening about it. If the last decade has shown anything, it’s that the press keeps doing its job, regardless — I would say heroically. But I cannot overstate how bizarre the dinner feels this year.”