US President Donald Trump is expected to attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday, a closely watched move given his administration’s fraught ties with the press.
However, ahead of the gala, photos of President Trump along with late sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein were projected on the Washington Hilton where the dinner is scheduled to take place. A user posted the video of the incident on X. “In honor of White House Correspondents Weekend, this video message highlighting Trump’s relationship with Epstein is being displayed on the side of the building where Trump will attend the dinner,” the caption for the video read.
According to Reuters news agency, the hotel where the photos were projected was the Washington Hilton. The video seems to bring back to the public eye the close ties between Trump and Epstein, and also included transcripts from the files related to the late sexual offender which were released by the US Justice Department. Another user asked Trump to “end the cover up.”
This comes even as the US Justice Department’s internal watchdog announced that it would review the department’s compliance with the law mandating the release of Epstein files.
The watchdog will look into how the department collected, reviewed and redacted materials in preparation for their release, and revisit the uneven release of millions of materials from the sex trafficking probe, the Associated Press reported.
Trump’s first attendance at the correspondents’ dinner as President
This will be the first time Trump attends the White House correspondents’ dinner as the US President. He has attended the gala twice in 2011 and 2015 as guest, and sitting in the audience during the former as Barack Obama addressed the reporters.
Trump had skipped attending the dinner in his first term or the first year of his second. Pas presidents who have attended spoke about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, along with some jokes added in between.
However, Trump’s second term has been marred by frequent run-ins with the press. The President and his administration have often snapped at reporters, and legally fought organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court, AP reported.
The event has also been a topic of debate in the US, raising questions regarding whether journalists should socialise with those who they cover. The New York Times, for example, stopped attending the dinner around a decade ago citing the above reason.
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