Prominent journalists have called for an end to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after President Donald Trump used the opportunity to savage members of the press during his speech, including a particularly aggressive segment about CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
In the wake of the Republican’s roughly hourlong tirade against journalists — which included Trump mocking Collins’ appearance and telling her to smile — some are questioning whether the dinner should become a thing of the past.
Others wondered whether the Correspondents’ Association made an error by welcoming Trump to the stage, given his ongoing battles with the press.
The conversation is unlikely to die down any time soon, as Collins is set to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday night, where she is anticipated to be quizzed on the president’s personal attacks.
The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked the press in ways large and small, from branding journalists as “fake news,” to suing reporters to restricting access to the White House and Pentagon.
“Our mission is to defend the First Amendment rights of White House correspondents to report on the president without fear or favor,” New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker wrote on X after the event. “Unfortunately last night did not advance that cause. Time to rethink the dinner.”
Voices across the industry shared that sentiment, with media columnists branding the dinner an “embarrassment” and a bitterly ironic showcase for the Republican, given that “no president in the history of this country has devoted more energy and resources to trying to weaken the free press than President Donald Trump,” according to one columnist at the media institute Poynter.
“Why did the association allow such a shameful thing to happen?” media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote on her Substack.
“This ought to be the last straw in the endless media normalization of Donald Trump,” added Sullivan, who wished the journalists in the room had walked out as Trump slammed numerous reporters by name and continued to insist he was being unfairly treated by the press.
The White House accused journalists of being unable to take the criticism that they give the administration.
“The liberal media can dish it but they can’t take it,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Independent in a statement.
The Independent has contacted the Correspondents’ Association for comment.
Weijia Jiang of CBS News, who recently finished her term leading the media association, has said she sought at times to act “diplomatic” towards the administration in order to “restore and normalize the relationship with the White House.”
“We have to have a functioning relationship so that our members can do their jobs,” she told the Columbia Journalism Review earlier this year.
That relationship has endured enormous strain under the second Trump administration, with the president pushing like never before to attack disfavored reporters and elevate allies.
Both before and after Trump’s inauguration, media outlets settled lawsuits with the Republican, moves that critics saw as an attempt to curry favor with the president.
Once the president was in office, he continued to put heavy pressure on the media.
The president and his Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr have repeatedly threatened late-night comedy hosts and their networks after criticisms of the president on air, and the White House blessed a mega-merger that saw his allies take over the parent company of CBS News, which soon permanently shelved Stephen Colbert’s often anti-Trump Late Show.
Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel have both directly sued outlets over reporting they contend is false.
The Trump administration has sought subpoenas from reporters at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, though all of these efforts have been withdrawn.
The president’s highly adversarial stance led to some awkward moments at Friday’s dinner.
Journalists including Collins and a Wall Street Journal team that reported on the president’s ties to sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein won awards as the president looked on awkwardly.
“Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against The Journal, revealing reporter Khadeeja Safdar’s home address,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said when introducing one award. “Her family had to be relocated. The Journal was kicked off of Air Force One.”
Friday’s dinner was supposed to be a triumphant return, after the originally planned April outing was disrupted by a gunman attempting to breach the ballroom.
Trump said after the incident that he would have given a “speech of love” about members of the press.
