U.S. Secret Service agents surround President Donald Trump after a shooting incident outside the ballroom during the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press
To the speech John F. Kennedy didn’t deliver at the Trade Mart in Dallas (he was assassinated en route) and to the speech Richard Nixon didn’t deliver if the Apollo 11 astronauts died on the moon (they didn’t), now add the blistering roast of the press Donald Trump didn’t deliver Saturday night (a gunman’s shots prompted the postponement of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner).
But the mayhem at the Washington Hilton nonetheless produced a truce between the President and the press that may not last as long as the Iran ceasefire, One way or another, at an event for decades marked as a moment of comedy, there reigned a bit of comity.
It was an event that didn’t lack press coverage – hundreds of scribblers and talkers were there, in party outfits that belied the cleavage between Mr. Trump and those who chronicle his activities and attacks, his foibles and falsehoods.
Shooting at White House correspondents’ dinner raises questions about Trump’s security
And when it was over – it was over before it began – Mr. Trump saluted reporters for their work (“You’ve been very responsible in your coverage”) and had special praise for CBS’s Weijia Jiang, president of the correspondents’ association (“Madam chairman, I just want to say you did a fantastic job”). Maybe fashion designer Tom Ford and your mother had it right, that dressing well is a form of good manners.
But when the shots rang out, the spring pea and burrata appetizer was put aside and cellphones were yanked from dinner jackets and purses.
The evening was transformed from girding for the President’s zingers to worrying about the President’s life. It was, after all, the third time Mr. Trump had been targeted to be the fifth presidential victim of fatal gunfire. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., allegedly in possession of knives, a shotgun and a handgun, will be arraigned in federal court Monday.
There were moments when Mr. Trump, speaking later at the White House, reverted to form. He claimed that only presidents who achieved greatness were targets of assassins, compared himself with Abraham Lincoln (assassinated 1865), and said, “The people that do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after.” He also stumped for his US$400-million White House ballroom, now suspended under judicial order (“It’s drone proof, it’s bulletproof”).
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The black-tie dinner has long been a staple on the spring calendar in the capital, with an immutable script: A comedian offers gentle jibes at both press and president. The president makes the press laugh with him instead of at him. They conclude with celebrating the freedom of the press.
News reporters, not ordinarily known for sartorial splendour or even for matching their soup-splattered ties with their soiled sport coats, dress up and are on their best behaviour. They invite guests of prominence, the idea being that familiarity might erase contempt, if only for a (seemingly endless) evening.
This sometimes prompts a scramble; in 1999, Governor George W. Bush accepted the invitation of The Boston Globe. The Dallas Morning News, knowing Mr. Bush was a presidential prospect, protested. In the end – Austin trumping Boston – Mr. Bush sat with the Texans.
Perhaps the only moment of great and enduring meaning involved Mr. Trump, a prominent advocate of the (false) argument that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States and thus wasn’t eligible to be president.
This episode sometimes is attributed to Mr. Trump’s determination to win the White House.
See the moment U.S. President Donald Trump was rushed from the White House correspondents dinner during a security incident.
Reuters
Mr. Trump sat stonily in the audience at the 2011 correspondents’ dinner as Mr. Obama issued a fusillade of contempt toward the New York tycoon.
“Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter – like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac? But all kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience.”
This year was the first time Mr. Trump has returned to the dinner, and he planned a scorcher of a speech.
In his prepared Dallas speech, Mr. Kennedy offered words that have eerie application today.
“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on Earth, good will toward men.”
What Mr. Trump had planned for what he called “the most inappropriate speech ever made,” may someday leak out, or be issued when the group reconvenes next month.
“I don’t know if I can ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight,” he said. “I think I’m going to be probably very nice. I’ll be very boring the next time, but we’re going to have a great event.”