Trump Press Attacks Loom Over White House Correspondents’ Dinner Do-over

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<span>Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images</span>
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<p>On Thursday afternoon, Justice Department attorneys withdrew <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/can-trumps-doj-force-the-ny-tim…; <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/new-yorktimes-vows-to-fight-tru…; to New York <em>Times </em>reporters compelling them to reveal confidential sources, standing down after pushback from a “visibly irritated” federal judge, the AP <a href="https://apnews.com/article/usmediatimesair-force-one-42429e4d4da8accc42…;. “Subpoenas are the last step, not the first step,” said Judge Arun Subramanian, echoing the paper’s <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.668455/gov.us…; that the administration from its own leak-investigation guidelines. Thursday’s courtroom proceeding, said <em>Times</em>’ deputy general counsel David McCraw, “was an important affirmation of our country’s commitment to a free press.”</p>

<p>The victory for the <em>Times</em> should be welcome news heading into a dinner celebrating the First Amendment. But the aggressive manner in which the Trump administration targeted five <em>Times</em> reporters following their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/us/politics/trump-air-force-one-secu…; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/us/politics/new-air-force-one-defens… security concerns</a> involving the new Qatari-donated Air Force One, remains deeply troubling. Even more, <em>Times</em> attorneys <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/business/media/new-york-times-subpoe…; in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/20/us/letter-motion-in-resp…; that the administration sought phone records of journalists’ family members. As Katherine Marsh, an author and the wife of <em>Times</em> reporter Julian Barnes, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/07/23/nx-s1-5903854/trump-new-air-force-one-ny…; NPR, “You almost feel like you’re being treated as an enemy of the state.”</p>

<p>It’s against this ominous backdrop that the White House Correspondents’ Association will host its rescheduled dinner on Friday night at the Waldorf Astoria Washington. The event has been scaled back from the April gala, which was cut short after a gunman <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/whca-dinner-trump-oz-pearlman-l… shots</a> inside the hotel as President Donald Trump, top Cabinet officials, and hundreds of journalists and news executives gathered in a ballroom below. This time, there won’t be a flurry of predinner cocktail parties, Status <a href="https://www.status.news/p/whcd-correspondents-dinner-trump-re-do-plan">…;, and news organizations have pruned their guest lists given the Waldorf’s smaller footprint.</p>

<p>Some would argue there’s <em>never</em> a good time for journalists to mingle in formalwear with government officials. The <em>Times</em>, as an organization, <a href="https://observer.com/2007/05/itimesi-withdraws-from-chummy-galas-leavin… off the dinner</a> nearly 20 years ago given the appearance of chumminess between the press and the people they’re expected to hold accountable. Beyond that recurring critique, the notion of Trump not only attending but speaking at a celebration of the First Amendment prompted a backlash ahead of the April 25 event. Don Lemon, who has <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/don-lemon-pleads-not-guilty-minnesota-i… not guilty</a> to conspiracy charges stemming from his coverage of an anti-ICE protest, <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/white-house-correspo… me then</a> that he was “not interested in dressing up in a tuxedo, sipping Champagne, and pretending everything is normal with a president and a regime that spends every day attacking, undermining and trying to discredit journalists and journalism.”</p>

<p>The dinner do-over has brought a fresh wave of scrutiny with <a href="https://macfarlanenews.substack.com/p/new-500-journalists-formally-requ… than 500 journalists</a> and press organizations <a href="https://messagetowhcajuly2026.tiiny.site/">urging the WHCA</a> to use the event as an opportunity “forcefully oppose the Trump administration’s attacks on journalists and on freedom of the press.” The coalition already <a href="https://whcadinnerpetition4-23.tiiny.site/">laid out a series of concerns</a> in the spring, including “retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations, frivolous lawsuits against the press,” and “personal verbal attacks on reporters.” Since then, it writes, “the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious,” noting the <em>Times</em> subpoenas and Trump’s threats “to revoke licenses of broadcasters who refuse to acquiesce to his demands.”</p>

<p>Last week, Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/16/trump-calls-for-revocation-of-…; that ABC and NBC should have their licenses revoked for not carrying his <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-alleges-wild-election-con… address</a> live on the broadcast channel; the networks aired it on their streaming platforms. Broadcast networks are not obligated to carry the president’s addresses, and they notably passed on some Barack Obama and Joe Biden speeches when they were in the White House. And yet, according to <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/07/fcc-trump-speech-abc-broadcast-licenses-12…;, FCC chair Brendan Carr indicated Wednesday that ABC’s editorial decision could factor into the agency’s early review of its licenses.</p>

<p>The FCC’s second-term <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/anna-gomez-fcc-democrat-media.h… campaign</a> has come as the Pentagon <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/hegseths-new-pentagon-press-pol… new press restrictions</a> and the Department of Justice, alongside the FBI, executed <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-fbis-search-of-reporters-… search</a> of a Washington<em> Post</em> reporter’s home in an earlier leak probe. The Society of Professional Journalists, which signed on to the coalition’s letter, <a href="https://www.spj.org/spj-renews-coalition-call-for-whca-to-defend-press-…; the WHCA should “follow through” on CBS News correspondent and outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang’s <a href="https://whca.press/2026/06/02/whca-announces-summer-dinner/">statement<…; last month about how “violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence.”</p>

<p>When I asked Jiang about the letter, she responded, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner exists because the First Amendment matters most when it’s under pressure. As we continue to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers, and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country — and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”</p>

<p>One veteran White House reporter, who believes the dinner’s time has passed, tells me “it’s a further embarrassment” to stage it “after we learned that New York <em>Times</em> reporters were served subpoenas for doing their jobs, some of which were delivered at their homes in a deliberate effort to intimidate.” Given Trump’s attacks on the press, “we should not be on the same stage as him in honoring the First Amendment,” the reporter said. “It’s incoherent.”</p>

<p>Trump will presumably be on the dais as the WHCA presents <a href="https://whca.press/award/whca-announces-2026-journalism-awards/">awards…; to journalists he has insulted, such as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, and even taken to court. Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press, an organization <a href="https://www.ap.org/media-center/ap-in-the-news/2025/white-house-bars-ap…; from the Oval Office last year for refusing to use the Trump-approved term “Gulf of America,” will take home a print award, while <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, who Trump <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trump-files-revised-defamation-lawsuit-…; along with the paper’s leadership over coverage of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, are being honored along with their colleagues for “courage and accountability.”</p>

<p>And the <em>Times</em>’ Tyler Pager, who was subpoenaed along with Barnes, Eric Lipton, Eric Schmitt, and Adam Goldman, will attend the dinner to accept an award from the Center for Integrity in honor of reporting “that has the courage to not fear and the discipline to not favor.”</p>

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