Even before the Washington media elite gathered in April for a black-tie dinner to celebrate the First Amendment, things got complicated.
President Trump, no fan of the nation’s news organizations, announced that he would deliver a rollicking speech and let it rip with his unvarnished opinions about the reporters in the room. Veteran journalists like Dan Rather asked why the dinner’s sponsor, the White House Correspondents’ Association, was willing to host an event with a president known for his attacks on the press.
Then an actual attack occurred: A gunman burst through the security setup at the Washington Hilton, forcing the evacuation of Mr. Trump and his cabinet secretaries and leaving tuxedoed and begowned guests huddling, and in some cases sobbing, under their tables.
The annual Correspondents’ Dinner was already a fraught subject in the capital. After the controversy and the violence, there was talk of shelving the whole hexed ritual and moving on to next year’s edition.
Instead, on Friday, a smaller group of politicos and reporters will attempt a redo.
The venue is new: the Waldorf Astoria, former site of the Trump International Hotel. The security is beefed up: Guests will be required to wear wristbands for the entirety of the evening and submit to more thorough searches on the way in. The parties are sparser, and the Friday-in-July scheduling has kept many movers and shakers away.
But the lineup is the same. Once again, Mr. Trump is the keynote speaker, and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has told reporters that the speech will be “unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious” — make of that what you will. The mentalist Oz Pearlman will perform, as he was scheduled to in April. Even the burrata appetizers are back.
And while Mr. Trump expressed some momentary unity with Washington journalists in the wake of the April attack, the intervening months have included some stark showdowns between the president and the press.
In July, the administration issued subpoenas seeking phone records and grand jury testimony from New York Times journalists who wrote articles revealing security concerns about Mr. Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The Times said the government was trying to intimidate its reporters and fought back in court. On Thursday, shortly after a federal judge in Manhattan scolded the Justice Department for its handling of the matter, the government withdrew the subpoenas.
One of the Times reporters who were subjects of the subpoenas, Tyler Pager, is set to accept an award onstage on Friday at the Correspondents’ Dinner.
Hours before he was set to deliver his speech, Mr. Trump was asked in the Oval Office if he supported subpoenaing journalists. The president said that in cases of national security, he was mostly comfortable with it.
“We’re not after journalists — we’re after leakers,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists.”
He also noted that former President Barack Obama had pursued leak investigations in office. “But when Obama does it, it’s OK, and when I do it, it’s not,” the president told reporters.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration sent subpoenas seeking to compel journalists for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to testify before a grand jury about reporting on U.S. military operations. Those subpoenas were later withdrawn.
Ms. Leavitt, the president’s press secretary, said at a Thursday news briefing that Mr. Trump was looking forward to Friday’s festivities.
“I encourage everyone watching to tune in for what promises to be a very entertaining and memorable evening,” she said.
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