White House Correspondents' Dinner

White House Correspondents' Dinner

From Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson

April 26, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Trump's attendance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the implications for press freedom.

April 25, 2026 Trump decides to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time, Trump has tried to silence the press during his second term, Trump and the First Lady were rushed out of the event after word that an armed man was outside the event, No one at the event was harmed, The right to freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, While the press was openly partisan in the early days of the republic, by the 1880s the country began to push back and the number of independent newspapers took off, Reporters looking for stories began to station themselves at the White House, White House reporters organized the WHCA in 1914, The WHCA ensured that journalists who covered the White House would have access to press passes, After Trump’s re-election, the administration would no longer recognize the role of the WHCA in managing the White House press pool. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ- Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe You can also find me: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social Instagram…

People in this episode

Host: Heather Cox Richardson

Topics covered

  • White House Correspondents' Dinner
  • freedom of the press
  • Trump administration
  • journalism history
  • WHCA

Keywords

  • Trump
  • White House Correspondents' Dinner
  • freedom of the press
  • WHCA
  • journalism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WHCA

Books & works: Letters from an American

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