David Lightman, a national correspondent for McClatchy and president of the Gridiron Club, framed President Donald Trump attending next month’s dinner as in keeping with well-worn tradition.

“He’s the president of the United States, and we always invite the president,” Lightman told POLITICO.


It’s true the Gridiron Club has been inviting presidents since 1885 and all but Grover Cleveland have attended. Still, the news on Monday that Trump plans to rub shoulders with members of Washington’s media elite is surprising given that his persistent attacks on news media haven’t abated since skipping such chummy galas last year. Trump routinely dismisses unwelcome coverage as “fake news,” has claimed without evidence that reporters make up sources, and has even questioned journalists' patriotism.

And yet Trump also isn’t ruling out attending the glitzy White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that “no decision has been made regarding the WHCA dinner” following a report in the Daily Mail he would be going.

Trump’s decision to attend the Gridiron, and possibly the Correspondents’ Dinner, comes at a time when coverage of the president is especially tense, given the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians seeking to disrupt the 2016 election. The indictments of 13 Russians on Friday — which stopped short of suggesting any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign — became another occasion for Trump to attack the media for allegedly skewing the stories against him.

Trump’s surprise decision to participate in a journalistic ritual suggests a desire to maintain some sense of respect and decorum, and was welcomed by some veteran Gridiron Club members. But it is also likely to renew questions about whether journalists should break bread with the president given his virulent anti-press rhetoric.

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“Faced with these attacks on our doing our job, we’re going to invite this guy to come and mock us in person? It’s abhorrent.” Slate Chairman Jacob Weisberg said last year, prior to Trump announcing that he wouldn’t attend that year’s Correspondents’ Dinner.

Trump has an open invitation to this year’s soiree, the organization’s president reiterated Monday.

“On April 28, we will gather as we have for decades to celebrate the First Amendment, some of the best political and investigative reporting in the country and student journalists who embody the best of our ideals,” Margaret Talev, a Bloomberg correspondent and WHCA president, said in a statement. “Each year the sitting U.S. president and vice president are welcome to join us to celebrate free speech and the importance of an independent news media.”

While no White House staffers attended the Correspondents’ Dinner last year, the administration did not similarly shut out the Gridiron Club. Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the dinner, which, unlike the better-known Correspondents’ Dinner, isn’t televised and doesn’t feature celebrity guests and several days of pre- and post-parties. There are no photographs or video permitted at the Gridiron Dinner, which was completely off the record for about the first 100 years, according to National Journal's George Condon.

Condon said limited White House pool coverage began in 2011, when President Barack Obama attended.

“Trump attending the closed-door, no-cameras, tradition-bound Gridiron Dinner in early March is a smart move by the White House,” tweeted Neil King, a former Wall Street Journal editor now with the intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which provided opposition research against Trump. “Gives him space to skip the very different W.H. Correspondents dinner, with all its glare.”

The Gridiron Dinner is more clubby than the Correspondents’ Dinner, with rituals akin to a college secret society. The club president gives a speech in the dark, while attendees dress in white ties and tails. Rather than booking a big-time comedian, as the Correspondents’ Dinner traditionally does, Gridiron members provide the entertainment through satirical skits aimed at both Democrats and Republicans. “We singe, but don’t burn,” Lightman said of the performances, reciting the club’s creed. “All sides get singed."

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a Democrat, and Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, will also speak at the Gridiron dinner, with the president expected to get about 10 minutes on stage.

Lightman said he followed standard procedure for inviting the president, which included meeting with representatives for the White House in December. And they agreed.

Bloomberg columnist and longtime Gridiron member Al Hunt said in an email to POLITICO that he didn’t see any problem with journalists attending the dinner given the president’s harsh criticism of the press.

“It's a welcome surprise,” Hunt said of Trump's decision to attend, “and will be fascinating to see how he does humor.”

