New Delhi: The President of the United States, Donald Trump and other officials of the administration were ushered out on Saturday night from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner due to an unspecified threat. Secret Service agents and other authorities reportedly arrived at the spot as hundreds of guests ducked under tables. The event was attended by 2,600 people who looked to take shelter as waiters rushed to the dining hall’s front space.
Who attended the dinner?
Later, WHCA President Weijia Jiang told everyone that the programme would resume momentarily. The dinner was being held at a hotel in the Washington and Trump, along with other White House officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were present there. It is still unclear what was the threat which forced the evacuation.
It was Trump’s first attendance at the WHCA dinner in Washington as the President as the relationship of his administration with the press has gone through ups and downs in his second term in the office. He had previously attended the event in 2011 and 2015 as a citizen.
Trump and his relation with press
Before the dinner, WHCA president Jiang reportedly said, “I don’t think people realize how closely we are working with the White House. The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.” According to reports, around 500 retired journalists signed a petition before the dinner that urged the organisation “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
On the war front, Trump said on Saturday cancelled American negotiators’ travel to Pakistan for talks with Iran. He told Fox News, “I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing’.”