President Trump and most members of his administration abstained from attending the annual Gridiron Club dinner on Saturday, where politicians and the press typically toast and lightly rib each other.
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President Trump attended the Gridiron Club dinner in 2018 during his first term, but skipped it on Saturday.
The President wanted nothing to do with it.
It was Saturday night in Washington, and many of the city’s top reporters, editors, and anchors had gathered in the basement of the Hyatt. They were there for the annual white-tie dinner of the Gridiron Club, a journalists’ association founded in 1885. Presidents typically attend with senior members of their administration. It’s a chance for politicians and the press to toast and lightly grill each other (“scorch, don’t burn” is the club’s motto). It’s a clubby, cozy affair. This year, it seemed to be winding down.
“I invited the president, the vice president, the national security adviser and the secretary of the interior,” said PBS News' Judy Woodruff, who is the club's president. “Everyone declined.”
“I was told that the Secretary of State would not be able to attend,” she added.
Mr Trump’s absence — and that of all members of his inner circle — was the latest in a long line of reminders that this time as president, he has no intention of cozying up to the Washington establishment or playing its games. He barely wanted to play the first time he was here, but there was some small effort on his part then. He attended the Gridiron dinner in 2018, and his daughter Ivanka went as an emissary the following year.
The Gridiron Club had been trying in vain for weeks to lure members of its cabinet to a Saturday dinner. Only one showed up: Scott Turner, the secretary of housing and urban development. CBS News’ Margaret Brennan joked that Mr. Turner was “something of the opposite of a designated survivor.”
Once word spread that the president and his entourage would not be attending, Republicans who had originally planned to attend, like Chris LaCivita, a Trump 2024 campaign manager, and Reince Priebus, Trump’s former chief of staff, pulled out. Those who did show up appeared to regret it. Daniel Driscoll, the Army secretary, walked out during a joke about Vice President J.D. Vance.
One White House official who missed the dinner privately described the club and its members as exactly the type of elite that Mr. Trump's base had sent to Washington to destroy.
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