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Mark Magnier

Josephine Ma

US President Donald Trump told the White House press corps at its annual gala dinner on Friday that “the show must go on,” three months after an earlier attempt was interrupted by an assassination attempt.
This time the mood was significantly different. Security was stepped up, far fewer journalists were there, the war against Iran that the mercurial president started with Israel continues and his attacks on the media have become more pronounced.
In a speech that lasted almost an hour, Trump mixed jokes with jibes on a variety of topics, from boasting about the new “bulletproof” White House ballrooms to lengthy attacks on leading Democrats such as California governor Gavin Newsom.
He only touched on foreign relations briefly, but confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister ⁠Benjamin Netanyahu would visit ‌the United States next ‌week.
He also said the US had been “doing well” on the Iran war, claiming that the Islamic Republic had little military capacity left.
“They are talking to us now, they want to make a deal. I am willing to listen, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told the 700 guests at the rescheduled dinner in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
He also told the event that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned trip to the US in late September was still on.
Trump invited Xi to the US during his state visit in Beijing earlier this year but his recent claims that Beijing had meddled in the 2020 elections had raised fears this might derail that plan, but Beijing dismissed the speculation and said the two sides were still discussing arrangements for the trip.
In the gala speech, Trump called Xi “a man I got along [with] very well” and boasted that he had personally convinced Xi to agree to the sale of TikTok’s US operation to an American joint venture.
Trump spent a significant amount of time of his speech to attack Democratic candidates in the run-up to midterm elections, and towards the end of the speech he even joked he would run for the president for a fourth time – something the constitution prohibits – and put on a “Trump 2028” baseball cap.
The US president told the event, intended as a celebration of press freedom, that he respected the journalists in the room – but then went on to describe the dinner as “the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people” ever put together at one time.

Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said it was important to reconvene to hand out annual journalism awards and student scholarships.
Born in Fujian and a White House correspondent for CBS News since 2018, Jiang is the first woman of colour to head the association that, for much of its 110-year history, was headed by white men.
Some 700 journalists and others attended on Friday, less than one third of the 2,600 that showed up on April 25, attributed in part to summer holidays as well as growing disquiet.
This was the first year that saw Trump attend the annual ritual, traditionally seen as a good-natured joust between reporters and the president. “As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” he said.
But the US president has a long history of attacking the “fake media” and is not inclined to engage in self-deprecating humour or weather perceived affronts, however humorous.
In addition, earlier this month the White House directed FBI agents to subpoena New York Times reporters in person at their homes.
The president was reportedly irate over its coverage indicating that the US$400 million 747 Air Force One, newly received as a gift from Qatar, was rushed into service so quickly that it lacked standard anti-missile defences after an expensive retrofit.
Lawmakers have criticised the aircraft deal, and the plane’s single-source, non-competitive renovation that reportedly cost hundreds of millions of US dollars, over its lack of oversight or transparency.
The Trump administration lifted the subpoenas on Thursday after strong media pushback and reports that one of the reporters’ mothers was even tapped.
“We are pleased that the government finally conceded that the subpoenas violated the law,” said David McCraw, the paper’s deputy general counsel in a statement. “But they should never have been issued in the first place.”
The original April dinner was rescheduled after an armed gunman identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, ran past a security checkpoint near the main ballroom carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 calibre pistol and multiple knives.


Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance and several cabinet members were immediately evacuated uninjured from the ballroom by Secret Service agents. Tuxedo- and ball gown-clad correspondents then rushed to the White House briefing room where Trump, in good humour, recounted the evening’s events.
As the attack unfolded, the Secret Service officers quickly engaged the suspect near the screening area. One Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, but his ballistic vest prevented severe injury. The suspect, meanwhile, fell after injuring his knee on a magnetometer box and was taken into custody without being shot.
Allen is being held in federal custody without bail and faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on several counts including attempted assassination.


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Speech to White House press corps dinner included jokes about a third term, jibes at opponents and the media – and praise for Xi Jinping


Speech to White House press corps dinner included jokes about a third term, jibes at opponents and the media – and praise for Xi Jinping.


‘Show must go on,’ Trump tells scaled-back press gala 3 months after assassination attempt

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Speech to White House press corps dinner included jokes about a third term, jibes at opponents and the media – and praise for Xi Jinping

Speech to White House press corps dinner included jokes about a third term, jibes at opponents and the media – and praise for Xi Jinping