Trump Evacuated from White House Correspondents’ Dinner by Secret Service

US President Donald Trump was urgently evacuated by Secret Service agents from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) annual dinner at a Washington DC hotel on Saturday evening. The reason for the evacuation has not been officially confirmed.

According to BBC reports, the evacuation may have been prompted by “suspected gunshots,” though authorities have not verified this account. The Secret Service and White House have not yet issued a detailed statement on the incident.

This was Trump’s first attendance at the WHCA dinner since 2011, when he was roasted by then-President Barack Obama. He had boycotted the event for years due to his contentious relationship with the media.

The dinner was already surrounded by tension. Before the event began, protesters projected images of Jeffrey Epstein alongside Trump onto the exterior of the hotel hosting the dinner, drawing attention to the Epstein case. Family members of Epstein’s victims have been calling for King Charles III to meet with survivors during his upcoming US state visit.

WHCA Chair Weijia Jiang, a CBS News White House correspondent, said in a statement: “As we mark America’s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”

However, the dinner took place amid a sustained deterioration in relations between the Trump administration and the press. In recent months, the administration has taken actions widely criticized as assaults on press freedom, including:

  • Cutting off Associated Press White House access over a naming dispute
  • Conducting the first-ever FBI raid on a journalist’s home in modern history
  • Threatening to sue CNN and the New York Times
  • Pressing Congress to defund public broadcasters NPR and PBS
  • Threatening to jail reporters who refuse to reveal confidential sources

Frank Sesno, a journalism professor at George Washington University and former CNN Washington bureau chief, said: “These are not just norm-shattering, but breathtakingly bold and dangerous moves. And to go to dinner and pretend these things haven’t happened is unthinkable.”

Sesno was among dozens of former journalists who signed a letter last week calling on WHCA organizers to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press” during the dinner.

Trump’s 2011 appearance at the WHCA dinner ended with Obama delivering pointed jokes about his birther conspiracy theories. This year’s event featured noticeably fewer Hollywood celebrities compared to the star-studded gatherings of previous years.

The evacuation has raised questions about security conditions in Washington DC and the broader implications for political events in the capital. Further details are expected as the investigation unfolds.

Source: Al Jazeera, BBC News