The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) announced Tuesday that its annual press dinner will be rescheduled to July 24. This comes after the original event — which was attended by President Donald Trump, senior administration officials, and a number of journalists — was disrupted by a gunman.
Weijia Jiang, who is the president of the WHCA and a CBS News Senior White House correspondent, said in an email to the association’s members that the rescheduled event would be a “more intimate gathering” and feature “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures.”
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Trump said that he has accepted an invitation to speak at the dinner next month, calling it a “‘HOT’ ticket!”
“In a sign of Strength and Fortitude, it was just announced that The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which violently ended rather abruptly on April 25th, will be rescheduled to July 24th,” he wrote on Truth Social. “This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling.”
Right after Jiang noted early Tuesday that venue information would be forthcoming, Trump revealed in his Truth Social post the event will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., which used to be the Trump International Hotel.
“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,” Jiang wrote in her email. “As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.” She added that the decision to hold a second dinner was made by the association’s board after receiving input from members.
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“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 wrote.
The event originally took place on April 25, and was disrupted when an armed man charged a security checkpoint outside the event. According to reports, Trump used the shooting as justification for the 1,000-seat ballroom currently under construction adjacent to the White House but which is under a series of legal challenges. A suspect, named Cole Tomas Allen, was arraigned on charges linked to the incident.