President Donald Trump spoke at the event just minutes after blasting out a tweet denying reports that he was seeking to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calling it "FAKE NEWS!" | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Minutes after slamming ‘fake news,’ Trump welcomes ‘my friends in the media’ for Christmas party President tells reporters they are 'honestly in many ways very special people — at least many of you.'

After spending most of the year attacking the media’s credibility, President Donald Trump gave brief, but friendly, welcoming remarks to a large turnout of reporters and editors at his White House Christmas party on Friday afternoon.

Those in attendance described the event as, in many ways, like any other White House holiday party — though, given the news of a plea deal by Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn earlier in the day, one with a surreal cloud hanging over the affair.


Following his remarks, which lasted two minutes, Trump spent another two or three minutes shaking hands near the front of the crowd before leaving, according to attendees. In previous years, presidents have stayed usually for about two hours to take pictures with media members.

White House chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway made appearances, though many senior administration officials skipped the party or stayed only a brief time, according to reporters who attended. Senior White House aide Omarosa Manigault was also in attendance.

“Melania and I are delighted to welcome you to the White House and I want to wish you a very Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas and a wonderful, wonderful new year,” Trump told the gathered members of the press on Friday afternoon, with his wife standing next to him.

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Addressing “my friends in the media,” the president continued, “this year we’ve traveled to many places across the country. You too have great stamina, I have to say. And we’ve been all around the world, just got back from a big one in Asia. You spent days away from your families and this afternoon I hope you’re going to be able to enjoy a little time with your spouses and loved ones right here at the people’s house, a special place, and honestly in many ways very special people — at least many of you.”

That crack earned laughs from the crowd.

The event was scheduled for 2 p.m., not long after Flynn entered his guilty plea. And Trump spoke sometime after 3 p.m., according to a reporter in the crowd, just minutes after blasting out a tweet denying reports that he was seeking to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calling it "FAKE NEWS!"

“You obviously have all these questions for Trump, but he’s not in the setting of taking questions,” said the reporter. “We were waiting for him to come down and everyone was looking at their phone and Twitter and seeing that he had just tweeted about Tillerson. It was like, OK, we’re waiting for him to come and address the crowd in a holiday setting. So there was a discordance about all that.”

“It’s such a newsy day, here we are having a party in the middle of it,” he said. “That was a little bit odd.”

With lots of food and drink, from eggnog to macaroni and cheese, though, the party proceeded more or less normally, said Linda Feldmann, Washington bureau chief of the Christian Science Monitor.

“It was really nice. They had the legendary lamb chops,” said Feldmann, who has attended the party under presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. “Aside from the no lining up for pictures with the president and first lady, it was really quite similar to the others I’ve been to.”

“The news this morning was big, but I think it’s sort of typical for the Trump era,” she said. “We’re used to these daily news explosions.”

The president has frequently derided mainstream media members as “fake news,” and used his Twitter feed to bludgeon their reporting. CNN decided to boycott the event, though journalists from NBC News and MSNBC — which Trump attacked twice on Twitter on Wednesday — CBS News, ABC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post had all said they planned to attend.

Fox News had a particularly large contingent, with Sean Hannity, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Steve Doocy, Maria Bartiromo and Jesse Watters among the attendees, according to those at the party.

Some joked that the event should have been called the “Fox News holiday party.”

But even the reporter who described the dissonance of celebrating amid so much breaking news said he enjoyed Trump’s party.

“At least his message did not contain digs against the media,” he said. “It did feel not terribly different from years past.”