I don't want to overstate any of this.

While it is true that in the immediate aftermath of the dinner incident this past Saturday, Trump spoke of unity and praised the journalists.

Yes, he praised the journalists who organized the dinner, but he's still very much Donald Trump, obsessing over his legacy, saying the most outlandish things, and providing the American people with almost no understanding of what he hopes to achieve in the Middle East, which causes many Americans, including this American, to wonder if he knows what he wants in the Middle East or knows the pathway to get there.

We'll talk about the president's dilemmas tonight and we'll discuss the state of the economy, which is everyone's problem, with my guests, Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent at the New York Times.

Susan Glasser is a columnist at the New Yorker.

Adris Koon is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

And Ashley Parker is a staff writer and a White House correspondent at The Atlantic.

Thank you all for for being here.

Let's start with the chaos of last Saturday night.

Um, Peter, how has the president been handling this latest apparent attempt on his life?

Yeah, it's it's fascinating display of Trumpian uh, you know, surprise, right?

Because the first reaction is one that you might have seen from other politicians.

He goes to the White House briefing room at 10:00 at night.

He is subdued.

He is taking it seriously.

He is sober.

He is praising the journalist.

uh he's recognizing the seriousness of the moment without using it as an opportunity to bash somebody and to attack somebody that lasts all of 12 hours of course and by the next day he's bashing Nor O'Donnell.

Within days, the president who had just been at a dinner supposed to be about the First Amendment is using his administration to go after ABC trying to get them to pull off Jimmy Kimble because he didn't like a joke.

And now his administration has criminally prosecuted the former FBI director James Comey for speech for his social media post with seashells and a slogan that they interpreted as a threat to the president.

So within days of course you saw Trump at his normal uh velocity but it's it's a it's it's a it's a tragic moment of course that politics and violence have become so interweaved that we didn't even really pause for very long to to think about what it meant and what it what it tells us about our politics today.

Susan, is there any evidence that this this this kind of incident which is terrible that it changes him at all?

Has have we seen anything at all?

Well, I mean, look, you know, there is a strong sense and I think Donald Trump believes that the two attempts on his life during the course of the 2024 campaign, uh, you know, that they in a way the fact that he survived them, uh, you know, gave him a different sense of mission in winning a second term in office.

And I do think you do see a more messianic a more legacy obsessed version of Donald Trump in his second term than in his first term.

But you know the normaly shouldn't be overstated in Donald Trump's reaction.

remember that one of his immediate impulses upon being told that someone had come close to threatening his life at this dinner uh was to immediately go on and on and on about how the country needed the $400 million ballroom that he's planning to build for the White House.

Right.

Right.

I I guess I was just I I was so struck after because it's so unusual, Ashley, that he was municent to the press.

He was praising the White House uh correspondents association even and even talking about unity which is not traditionally a theme of the Trump administration.

I I I I don't want to push people to a conclusion that they can't draw but but for a moment there it seemed like there was a completely different president.

Yes, it it did.

But I think anyone who has covered him uh for even just a couple of years understands that that is not the authentic Trump.

That those words coming out of his mouth are not authentic.

Although I will say it is authentic Trump in this sense which is Donald Trump is often trying to win over whoever is directly in front of him when he's not trying to insult them.

Right?

And in this moment he has a room full of journalists.

I think he was perhaps a little bit shaken.

You also remember the secret JD Vance gets off the stage first and the reason he doesn't move as quickly is because as he admits he sort of waves off his secret service detail and is sort of like wait a minute I want to see this show.

So he's seen this show um he's been impressed for whatever reason how the room comported himself and so in that moment he's faced with a bunch of journalists he wants to win them over and he can be when he chooses to be incredibly charming.

Yeah, we have both experienced that uh on occasion.

Um the White House correspondents dinner uh does it have a future?

Should it have a future?

Ashley, you're you you you have profound thoughts on the White House correspondence dinner.

Why don't you share them?

Well, I I will just share my little claim to fame, which is that the New York Times famously does not go to the dinner.

Um, and that is because when I was a young research assistant for Morin Dow, I was assigned I was not invited to the dinner, but I was assigned to cover it.

It was during the Iraq war.

The Times had invited his guests because you used to bring a ton of guests, Carl Rove and Cheryl Cheryl Crowe on famously opposite sides of this war.

They got in a big fight at the dinner and then I got the tip and I reported it and it just felt too there was a sense from up high that it felt too queasy that the times had made news by inviting these guests and then covered the news they had made and I think they like a lot of news organizations felt gross about this dinner anyhow wanted a reason to leave and and did what a lot of organizations have wanted to do but have not been able to.

Well, and I think that that predates Trump but Trump then becomes the, you know, proof of the pudding, right?

Why should we be having dinners with presidents who we are covering and particularly if you have a president who is calling us enemies of the people who is using the power of government to go after us literally uh threatening the New York Times this week with sedition for daring to write stories he doesn't like.

He's uh you know his administration is suing you his you know his his FBI director.

This is not an administration that has the same commitment to the first amendment that the rest of the people in that room had.

And is this an uncomfortable, you know, it's it's icky because of what you described, but it's also uncomfortable in another way.

We have a we have a job to do and it's covering him, not celebrating with him.

Idris, you're naturally contrarian.

What's the best argument for keeping the White House correspondents dinner going?

Uh, I guess tradition, you know, history is made there.

Donald Trump uh was mocked by Barack Obama.

might have been the thing that caused him to uh say, you know what, I'm going to uh become president and I'm going to become arguably a more influential person than than Barack Obama to to your article's point.

You know, vying with Napoleon and other things.

So, you know, history history is made there.

Um I will say it was my first White House correspondents dinner and uh this was your first one.

I could not believe that it only lasted 10 minutes.

They're not usually like that.

They're they're longer.

They're usually much longer much longer.

No, I but I I'm serious because because I will share my view.

Not that you care, but I will share it anyway.

I'm in the chair.

U seeing a bunch of journalists in tuxedos hobnobbing with powerful people, I don't think does much for our image in the country, I I mean I I just from a pure perspect pure from a pure optic.

Well, it's more than optics.

It's like we are literally I mean I didn't go this year, but we are hobnobbing with people.

were supposed to be holding adversarial to say I I think that's really an important point, Jeeoff, that's gotten lost because it was such a dramatic moment here.

But like in the end, you know, journalists are part of a broader civil society in this country that has been under siege.

And what I think a lot of people when they look at Washington, you know, and they say we're revolted by the spectacle, they they include the press in that because there's a sense that people are not walking the talk, you know, living the principles that they either you believe that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to freedom of speech and other pillars of our constitutional order, or you don't.

and what the message from these journalists that we've seen amplified a lot frankly in the days since this dinner uh and the debacle that that happened there.

The message that's received to people is we actually care more about having access to people in the White House even if they are calling us enemies of the people, suing us for billions of dollars and undermining our ability to tell the American people the truth and do the job that we're here for.

I literally think it's the tuxedos and the gowns that people see that that celebrities and the red carpet and I mean you are taking the people writ large who have the absolute lowest approval rating in the country journalists members of Congress and often the president you are putting them in a ballroom you are dressing them up you are feeding them we didn't get to this course but you are feeding them filt and lobster and you are throwing sealless celebrities into the mix it's very understandable even though there's legitimate freedom of the press and first Amendment reasons for this dinner, why the entire country rightfully hates it.

Would you like to know my compromise solution?

I bet you do.

My compromised solution is that continue the dinner, but everyone has to dress like John Federman to make it seem more accessible.

And no, no more lobster.

No more lobster like like you know chicken fingers or something like that.

No, it's it's actually a serious thing.

I mean, there's a technical issue here which is that in our new security reality, how do you pull these things off?

We'll we'll revisit this subject but it is it is not just a a subject of domestic or or parochial concern because it does go to the way we are perceived in the country and the way we perceived note is not very good