Oz Pearlman is hoping that his mentalist wizardry is the most memorable moment at tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
But even Pearlman probably can’t predict what President Trump is going to say on stage.
Trump is attending Washington’s annual celebration of the First Amendment for the first time as president.
It’s a highly unusual setting for a president who frequently rails against real news he calls “fake.” Given both Trump’s words and actions against the press, the White House Correspondents’ Association has come under criticism for encouraging him to come to the dinner.
But the association says it is glad Trump is ending his years-long boycott of the black-tie affair, which has hosted the sitting president for more than a century.
Trump’s speech and Pearlman’s performance will be two of the headlines of the evening, televised live on CNN, C-SPAN and other channels.
C-SPAN is adding extra cameras in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, partly because Pearlman is expected to walk through parts of the cavernous hall during his act.
Those cameras will also be trained on journalists’ faces during Trump’s speech — and vice versa. At a pre-dinner reception on Saturday, more than one journalist was heard saying they were “practicing my resting face,” lest they be caught on camera laughing or frowning at the president.
Trump’s aides have said he is planning an “entertaining” speech, but many journalists have speculated that he’ll single out news outlets for criticism, perhaps treating the event like the vanquishing of an opponent.
At dinner-adjacent parties and events across Washington, reporters and politicos also noted that Trump will not be the only speaker.
Given the rundown of the night, he will be sitting on stage while the association’s president, Weijia Jiang, speaks about the essential role of the press corps.
Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, told CNN that “everyone in attendance,” including Trump, knows the dinner is “dedicated to recognizing the importance of the First Amendment.”
More to the ceremony than comedy and black-tie
Before Jiang speaks and introduces the president, the association will acknowledge the winners of its annual scholarships.
However, in a change from past years, the winners of this year’s WHCA awards will not be recognized until after the president speaks, according to two people with knowledge of the rundown.
This is significant because some of the winners are being recognized for work the president has lambasted. The Wall Street Journal is receiving the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for its exclusive story about a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name. Trump sued the Journal over the story, though the lawsuit was recently tossed by a judge. (Trump’s legal team said it will refile the suit.)
The other awardees are Kaitlan Collins of CNN; Josh Dawsey of The Journal; Tyler Pager of The New York Times; Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; Andrew Harnik of Getty Images; and Minneapolis local news station KARE-11.
Earlier this week, a Daily Beast story indicated that Trump might attempt a “mic drop” moment and leave before the awards are presented.
If so, he will also miss Pearlman, whose mind-reading, jaw-dropping performance is slated to cap off the evening.
Pearlman told CNN’s Michael Smerconish in an interview Saturday that he hopes Trump “will want to take part, because honestly, he is, at his core, an ultimate showman.”
Trump’s “strong suit is the media,” Pearlman said. “Anyone who thinks otherwise is silly.”
Pearlman’s presence at the event might be a sign of the politically contested times. The association board usually picks a comedian as the evening’s entertainer, but booked Pearlman this year instead, partly to sidestep the MAGA backlash that a Trump-zinging comic can cause.
Jiang told CNN that Pearlman was chosen well before Trump said he would attend the dinner. Nevertheless, it has given rise to the claim — repeated by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel this week — that Trump is a “delicate snowflake,” who wouldn’t have shown up to be roasted.
Trump’s track record has led press freedom groups to depict him as an enemy of the First Amendment.
Since returning to office last year, Trump has sued multiple news outlets, defunded PBS and NPR, dismantled Voice of America, and pushed federal agencies to punish critical media outlets. He has launched sexist attacks against female reporters, using words like “maggot” and “piggy.” He has simultaneously demonized news outlets that scrutinize him and promoted outlets that flatter him.
Following Trump’s lead, his administration has taken highly controversial steps to curtail press access. The Defense Department booted reporters from the Pentagon last year. The FBI raided a Washington Post reporter’s home earlier this year. The Justice Department is currently prosecuting two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church. Both journalists say they were simply there to cover the protest.
Lemon is pointedly skipping the dinner this year. At a party thrown by his talent agency, UTA, on Friday night, he said the government’s case isn’t about him, it’s about a wider effort to stifle the free press.
Fort is attending the dinner as a guest of The Guardian, which said it invited her to show support for an independent press that is under unprecedented threat from the president.
Trump’s attendance has divided the wider journalism world and stirred online arguments. Some critics said the dinner should be scrapped altogether, though its proponents say it is a worthwhile way to raise money and celebrate the work of the press corps.
Some of the pre-dinner receptions and bashes attracted Trump administration officials, like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Mike Waltz. A closed-press Thursday night dinner hosted by Paramount, which is seeking Trump administration approval to buy CNN’s parent Warner Bros. Discovery, was attended by Trump and several cabinet secretaries, plus FCC chair Brendan Carr, a person familiar with the event said.
Other parties appealed to Democratic politicians, diplomatic officials, lobbyists and corporate sponsors.
A line formed around California Gov. Gavin Newsom at an annual garden brunch hosted by Tammy Haddad on Saturday afternoon. Newsom said he would not be attending the dinner itself.
Some people on the weekend party circuit planned to attend an alternative shindig thrown by Substack, the startup publishing platform favored by newsletter writers and podcasters.
“Substack creators are having the most fun of anyone in media,” CEO Chris Best said.
It often seemed that way at many of the pre-dinner festivities. Several veteran TV anchors-turned-Substackers garnered attention by urging their former colleagues to skip the dinner in light of Trump’s attendance.
But the external criticism of the event belied the fact that the correspondents’ association was overwhelmed by ticket requests. The dinner — typically a jam-packed affair — is sold out this year, which is a decent testament to the enduring power and diversity of the American press.
Despite Trump’s attacks, legal threats, and business pressures, the United States remains a beacon for journalists in other countries.
Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, pointed out in a LinkedIn post that the press freedom picture is bleak in many countries, particularly in the Middle East, where Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed by an Israeli airstrike earlier in the week.
Ginsberg wrote, “I hope that amid the glasses raised to a free press and the canapés eaten, amid the sequins and the silks,” attendees “support our journalist colleagues worldwide who risk life and liberty for the press freedom you’re honoring this weekend.”
