Trump to speak at White House press dinner rescheduled after shooting

Donald Trump will address a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association (WCHA) dinner on Friday three months after the original event was abruptly halted after an armed assailant tried to storm it, with the alleged aim of assassinating him.

The rearranged dinner has been condemned as “hypocritical” by retired journalists and press freedom groups, who are urging the association to use it to confront Trump over his administration’s intensified attacks on the media.

The US president’s appearance at a significantly downsized gathering is being presented by organizers and Trump himself as an act of defiance intended to reaffirm the principles of free speech, as guaranteed by the US constitution’s first amendment.

Weijia Jiang, the WCHA’s president, has called the decision to restage the dinner “a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence”.

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