Good morning and Happy Monday! Thanks for starting your day with me.

Whoo boy, I have been rip-roaring to go about Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner ever since it happened. If there was ever an event that didn’t need to be held, it was this one.

Like many other journalists, I’ve looked on with a growing sense of dismay as it became clear that there wasn’t going to be any kind of meaningful boycott of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, or “nerd prom,” as critics have taken to calling it on social media. The dinner is held annually, ostensibly, to “honor” the First Amendment, but, realistically, it’s morphed into a night when the journalism elite get to put on fancy clothes, walk a red carpet, and rub elbows with the Washington power brokers they cover. If you believe a separation of journalism and the government is as necessary as the separation of church and state, the whole thing is cringeworthy.

That’s how I feel about the WHCD during “normal” times. During the second Trump administration, I take a much, much dimmer view of it.

As historian Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in her newsletter on Saturday, Donald Trump effectively neutered the White House Correspondents’ Association (WCHA) when he took office in 2025.

In 2017, Trump infamously called the press “the enemy of the American people.” As recently as March of 2026, Trump suggested that journalists who print stories he disagrees with should be tried for treason. He derides and insults journalists, particularly female journalists, on a near-daily basis, insulting them with names like “Piggy,” ”ugly,” and “stupid.” He has sued multiple outlets, including CBS, ABC, the NYT, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC, for reporting the truth about his administration. Under his leadership, federal agents have arrested journalists covering protests against ICE and CBP in American cities. Trump’s FBI raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson in January, tossing aside a Biden-era rule that prohibited the DOJ from going after journalists to identify federal government leakers.

And that’s only what I can recall off the top of my head. In short, Donald Trump is more contemptuous of and hostile to the press than any President in our lifetime. Yet CBS News, which was sued by Trump, was there. The President of NPR, which Trump attempted to defund, was there. The President of ABC News, whom Trump sued, was there. MS NOW, whose hosts spend most of their shows deriding Trump, was there. And on and on.

So why did so many members of the “elite” media show up at an event Trump was attending Saturday night? Especially after news leaked that he was planning to roast the media to their faces?

(A quick sidebar: I created a list on Bluesky Saturday night of the journalists who attended the WHCD, based on images of the red carpet and those who self-identified as being there. Since then, quite a bit of vitriol has been flung my way, both by people upset that their favorite journos made the list, and journalists themselves, one of whom told me I needed to “go to journalism school” (I did). I’m still torn about whether to delete it. As of right now, I’ve decided not, even as some of my favorites broke my heart by attending.)

That attempted insult got me wondering, though: How many of those who got all glammed up to hang around with Donald Trump, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Scott Bessent, and company actually went to journalism school? Turns out, of the 10 journos I Googled off the top of my head, only one actually studied journalism. A lot of sociologists, history, and political science majors, but few who actually attended J-school. I’ve always maintained that you don’t have to go to J-school to be a great journalist, but I do think there’s something to be said for having that code of ethics drummed into your head for four years.

Back when I was in J-school, we also distinguished between “journalists,” who were taught the ins and outs of investigative journalism, and “broadcasters,” who learned an entirely different set of skills. It occurred to me while watching this all go down that we apply the term “journalism” pretty loosely these days. Perhaps we should use “media” for those who don’t actually practice real reporting. Or who don’t see a problem with socializing with those they cover.

Anyway, this is probably why access journalism, in which quotes, interviews, and information are given to reporters on a quid pro quo basis, seems so normal to so many. Glad-handing the people you’re covering (in this case, those who have blatantly embraced fascism and bigotry) is a form of access journalism. Check out what MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian said on Saturday night:

I can’t stress enough that, as a journalist, your job is not to care about those you cover as “human beings,” especially when those same people are tormenting your colleagues, immigrants, and every marginalized group in the country. That’s not to say you should be intentionally cruel, but the feelings of the high-ranking person you’re reporting on should come second to reporting newsworthy truths. Cordiality has nothing to do with it. Katherine Graham infamously blew up some of her personal friends — notably Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara — when the Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers.

And where does all this “cordiality” get the press with the Trump administration, anyway? Here’s Norah O’Donnell, who was winking and pointing at people on the red carpet Saturday, and whose outlet — CBS News — invited Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller to sit at their table, interviewing Trump on 60 Minutes last night:

Kissing Trump’s ass on Saturday night won’t make him respect you on Sunday.

Trump’s “press conference,” which took place almost immediately after the WHCD was evacuated, was one of the biggest derelictions of duty I’ve ever seen. The first question, which went to WHCA president Weijia Jiang, was about Trump’s feelings upon hearing about the live shooter. Another “journalist” prefaced his “question” by telling Trump he showed “great courage” in… being evacuated, I guess? A roomful of “reporters” sat before Trump and allowed him to say, repeatedly, that he opposed “violence in all” forms with zero pushback whatsoever. No one brought up the bombing of civilians in Iran, the murders of protestors at the hands of ICE, all the journalists killed in Gaza by his pal Netanyahu (over 200 and counting), or his comment that “An entire civilization will die tonight.” That’s journalistic malpractice. That it happened while much of the White House Press Corps was in black tie attire only made it more surreal. It wasn’t journalism so much as it was trauma-bonding.

Yet these are the people who are supposed to be telling us the truth about this administration. How can we have confidence they’re doing that when they allow Trump to lie to their faces without confronting him with the objective truth?

But I think the refusal of the press, by and large, to give up their chance to put on sequins and cumberbuns and hang out with Washington’s most powerful speaks to something that’s bothered me about the current state of America for some time: Very few Americans are willing to give up anything to try to make the country a better place.

Despite the open-ended unfair labor practices strike by Starbucks employees heading into its sixth month, there’s a long line at the drive-thru every time I go past. The boycott against Target for discontinuing its DEI program to appease Trump and allowing ICE and CBP to stage in its parking lots and use its bathrooms is still in full swing, yet I see influencers all over social media lining up outside stores for the latest “pop-up” shop or limited-edition Stanley. Elon Musk put thousands of federal workers out of jobs and obliterated our social safety net, yet I can’t even begin to count the number of Teslas I see on the road every day. Everyone hates Jeff Bezos, but no one is willing to stop shopping via Amazon.

Rather than sacrificing for something bigger like The Greatest Generation is famous for doing, America today is a place where people compete to out-consume each other and respond to any suggestion that we vote with our wallets with derision and a “Why should I give it up if it makes me happy?” Yet what power do we have against the corporate oligarchs aside from where and how we spend our money?

It’s no wonder that so many in the media were unwilling to sacrifice one Saturday night (as I said, this event happens every year) to make a bigger statement about the importance of the Fourth Estate. We live in an America that elevated personal wants over societal needs. Most in attendance at the WHCD appeared willing to sit still while Trump insulted them, their colleagues, and the very idea of a free press, in the name of “supporting each other” or “supporting the First Amendment” or something. And no, Jake Tapper’s pocket-square protest doesn’t count. Be serious.

You know what would have really stuck it to Donald Trump? An empty ballroom. What would have really gotten under his skin was looking out over that ballroom and seeing empty table after empty table. But I guess giving up the glam of the red carpet for one year is too much to ask a bunch of people who are being paid very well for what they do. What a sad commentary on the state of America.

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Despite everyone assuring Trump he was a very brave boy at the WHCD, he and his administration weren’t exactly covered in glory when everything went south.

First, it’s pretty clear that while Melania and others clocked the “noise” as gunshots, Trump’s brain had to buffer for a few minutes first.

The Secret Service also got JD Vance out before Trump, who took a really long time to get up. Trump also wants you to know that he didn’t fall down on his way out.

Here’s RFK Jr. abandoning his wife as he runs for cover:

And here is our intrepid FBI director, who was stuffed in the back of the ballroom next to the MS NOW table (a great sign for his tenure in this administration), and who seemed to really be on top of everything.

We are so cooked.

The alleged shooter, Cole Thomas Allen, is expected to be arraigned in court this morning, per DOJ officials. Allen is a 31-year-old engineer by training from Torrance, CA, who attended Caltech and has been described as a “borderline genius.” He was reportedly armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. About 10 minutes before he attempted to make it past security, he sent this note to his family:

That’s possibly the most clear-headed “manifesto” I’ve ever read. It also obliterates Trump’s claim that people keep trying to kill him because he’s doing so much for America.

Predictably, Trump got defensive when Norah O’Donnell read parts of it to him on 60 Minutes:

O’Donnell failed to point out that Trump has been credibly accused of being a pedophile by a child in the Epstein files and that he has been legally adjudicated a rapist by a jury of his peers.

I wanted to give Will Bunch the final word today, as I think his piece for the Inquirer is bang on.

Panem today, Panem tomorrow, Panem forever.

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Love this song, and I love Lake Street Dive. You’re welcome.

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Follow Julie on Bluesky and Instagram so she can get another book contract.