Bon appetite, Trump!
Trump did not want to be indigested or at least to have an outburst during the dinner that this year, as is traditional, the White House offered to journalists from the most important means of communication in the United States. Perhaps fearing the incisive jokes of Michelle Wolf and demonstrating the real beast he is Trump preferred to shelter from the comedian in the district of Washington, Michigan.
From there, he counterattacked and expounded on the American press. For the second consecutive year, the head of state is absent from the traditional annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association. While Wolf, in the absence of the president, made her own and spiced the meeting with heated jokes.
Wolf apparently did not behave very pleasantly with the hosts. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was one of the comedian's targets. Michelle took it on Sanders and mocked of the veracity of her ads, her appearance and her Southern accent. Among Wolf's attacks was the ironic warning that she would not shut up or stop her poignant humor. "It's 2018 and I'm a woman, so you cannot shut me up," "unless you make Michael Cohen transfer $ 130,000 to my account", joked Wolf who paralyzed the faces of many of those present and even made some gentlemen adjust their ties and swallow dry. Also, they were in the dinner reporter Kellyanne Conway, adviser of the president, and the secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who worked in television as an economic analyst.
The annual dinner offered at the White House is usually attended by newspaper correspondents but also Oscar-winning celebrities and TV stars, and sports, film and other high-profile personalities. However, on this occasion, the number of attendees was not like in previous editions, since several of the stars do not share Trump’s political decisions.
Trump made palpable his contempt for the press and journalists during the political rally he does attend. In his rhetoric, he commented: “Is this better than that farce of the White House correspondents' dinner in Washington? Is this more fun?” Of course, his followers cheered and applauded as a sign of approval. Trump told them that he does not feel very comfortable with journalists when he said: "I could be there tonight, smiling, as if I liked their hitting on me, blow after blow. These people, they hate you ... and you have to smile. If one does not smile, they say: He was terrible, he could not accept it. And if one smiles, they say: What did he laugh about?
The president hates journalists and thinks of them as parasites. Even James Comey recently reported that Trump was asking about how to arrest journalists. Certainly, that was not a random question, Trump is cooking something or he wants to "cage" someone for attacking him from the media.
It is well known that "Donny" daily confronts political scandals inside and outside the nation. It is not a secret either that he wages economic and war battles against other territories, emerging as one of the most belligerent leaders who have been at the US presidential chair. One of Trump's main battles is precisely against the domestic press, to which he does not stop criticizing and accusing all the time of launching fake news. Even a few months ago he announced the Fake News Contest where he rewarded those media with the worst coverage of his administration.
While it is true that Trump and the press of his country do not get along very well and that several prestigious media have screwed it up, as ironically and contradictory that seems the US head of state is improving the quality of the journalism sector in the country. Reporters forced themselves to present to their editors with more reliable sources and truer testimonies, so far from damaging it, Trump is making US journalism to improve.
However, despite his media repudiation evidenced in his statement that the means of communications are a stain, Trump knows that they are his best ally. On several occasions, they have shown it, especially in each new war campaign in which the United States needs to get involved for some reason. Media is also a standard-bearer against the enemies of American "national security" like Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran and Russia.
Perhaps Trump complains in public, but he is aware that if the United States is today a great nation, it is largely because of the media and the freedom of speech. Hearst's statement, during the Spanish-Cuban-American war, will remain as part of History forever: "send me the photos that the war is on me". America has always used fake news and that has not changed. Media still is the main guarantor of democracy in that country.
Before Trump, Ronald Reagan in 1981 was the first who didn’t attend this sort of social gathering, while recovering from an assassination attempt.