The White House correspondents’ dinner will be rescheduled for 24 July after the Washington event was abruptly cancelled this spring following a shooting.
Donald Trump, who was swiftly evacuated from the gala after the incident on 25 April, has pledged to attend a rescheduled event.
Confirming his attendance and plan to speak at July’s event, the president said: “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out. In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”
It’s not clear yet whether the dinner will be held at the Washington Hilton hotel, where it initially took place, considering security concerns about the layout of the building. Trump claimed the venue will be the Waldorf Astoria, which his Trump Organization used to own.
In an email to White House reporters, Weijia Jiang, president of the organizing White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), said details about the location, tickets and the programming “will follow soon” – and that the event “will feature significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures”.
Jiang said the dinner will be a more “intimate gathering”, suggesting it will not resemble the mass gathering of thousands of tuxedoed journalists and politicians that typically takes place every year.
Trump said: “This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling.”
The WHCA decided to reschedule the dinner “after thoughtful consideration and input from our members”, said Jiang, a correspondent at CBS News.
“When gunfire interrupted this year’s event, it further clarified the WHCA’s mission to advocate for the freedoms that are protected in the first amendment,” she wrote. “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.”
Trump, who attended this year’s dinner for the first time as president, had called for it to be rescheduled within 30 days – a deadline that has passed.
“This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program,” Jiang wrote. “It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence. As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.”
Last month, Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected shooter, pleaded not guilty to charges including the attempted assassination of the president, assault on a federal officer and firearms offenses.
