标签： North America

When the first scheduled press dinner featuring former President Donald Trump was cut short by a shocking gunman incident, organizers were forced to postpone the event, sending shockwaves through the political and media communities. Weeks later, the gathering was rearranged, and BBC News reporter Bernd Debusmann Jr was on the ground, granted exclusive access inside the venue to document the rescheduled evening.

In his on-the-ground reporting, Debusmann captured the subtle but noticeable shifts in atmosphere that set this second attempt apart from the originally planned event. What was meant to be a routine, if high-profile, networking and speech event between political figures and members of the White House press corps had been recontextualized by the violent disruption that preceded it. Guests entered the venue with heightened security protocols, and conversations often circled back to the earlier incident that forced the dinner’s cancellation in the first place.

Debusmann’s on-site reporting offers audiences a rare, first-hand look at how the event unfolded after the disruption, from the opening remarks to the off-the-record interactions between Trump and attending journalists. The rescheduled dinner carried significant political weight, coming as Trump continues his active political engagement ahead of a high-stakes election cycle, making the inside perspective all the more valuable for observers tracking the former president’s interactions with the national press.

Six months after a would-be presidential assassination attempt forced the cancellation of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner just moments before it was set to begin, the event finally went ahead on Saturday, with U.S. President Donald Trump leading a night of humor, tribute, and reaffirmation of American free speech traditions.

The original April dinner, scheduled to host more than 2,000 attendees at Washington D.C.’s Hilton Hotel, was cut short when 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was tackled by Secret Service agents near the event ballroom. The incident left Secret Service officer Victor Gonzalez wounded, and forced organizers to scrap the gathering entirely. On Saturday, 350 fewer guests than the original planned gathering filled the venue – only 700 attendees were welcomed, amid dramatically ramped-up security measures that included multiple street blockades around the hotel, heavy deployment of uniformed police and National Guard personnel, two layers of identity and QR code screening, mandatory wristbands for all guests, and single-file entry past armed Secret Service officers.

In her opening remarks, outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS News opened the event by rejecting violence’s ability to disrupt democratic press traditions, saying organizers would refuse to “let an act of violence have the final word.” She also confirmed that the 2027 WHCA dinner would return to the Washington Hilton, the site of the April attempt, to reinforce that commitment. President Trump honored Gonzalez for his quick action during the attempt, presenting him with a special award to recognize his bravery. In a symbolic moment that underscored the dinner’s mission of honoring press work regardless of political tension, Trump also shook hands with a reporting team from *The Wall Street Journal* that took home an award for its investigative coverage of Trump’s ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein – a story deeply critical of the president. Other high-ranking administration officials in attendance included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Before Saturday’s dinner, many members of the White House press corps had expected Trump to deliver a harsh, combative rebuke of the media, consistent with his long-running public criticism of outlets that have covered him critically, including CNN, *The New York Times*, and the *Wall Street Journal* – all of which have faced lawsuits and public attacks from the president in the past. But Trump struck a largely cordial, if still playful, tone throughout his remarks. Opening with his core message for the night, he said, “As I said three months ago, the show must go on.” He added, “The second time is always better,” noting that he respected most of the journalists in attendance, and called on the country to uphold core free speech values.

“We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate,” Trump told the crowd. “And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that. We can’t let that ever happen.” That said, the president wove his well-known criticism of media coverage into his jokes. He quipped that the dinner was “really the largest group of ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ people ever put together at one time,” joking that “sometimes I really do think that some of you don’t like me.” He added a lighthearted jab that attendees were lucky the April event was cut short, saying he had planned a far harsher speech that night.

Allen, the suspect in the April assassination attempt, remains in custody facing federal charges of attempted assassination of the U.S. president.

In a sharp escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to reshape how American history is presented to the public, former President Donald Trump has issued a new executive order ordering mandatory warning signs to be installed outside the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The order, formally titled *Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution*, targets exhibits the current administration frames as historically inaccurate, requiring the U.S. Department of the Interior to oversee placement of the signage and direct visitors to alternative sources that the White House deems ideologically aligned with its vision of American history. The order does not specify what those alternative, more accurate sources of historical information would be.

The order follows months of escalating tension between the Trump White House and the world’s largest research and museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution. For months, the administration has repeatedly accused the Smithsonian and other mainstream academic organizations of harboring systemic anti-American bias. Friday’s order specifically criticizes museum leadership for failing to sufficiently honor the United States’ 250th Independence Day celebration, held July 4, by elevating the legacies of the nation’s founders. It goes further, claiming that museum leadership intentionally uses American history as a tool to advance progressive social justice causes and radical societal transformation.

An accompanying official statement from the White House doubles down on these accusations, alleging the institution has veered into extreme political activism rooted in Marxist ideology that works to divide, demoralize and dishearten American citizens. The latest directive comes just days after Smithsonian director Anthea Hartig faced intense questioning from Republican lawmakers during two consecutive congressional hearings, where the institution was broadly accused of being permeated by “woke ideology” that has distorted public exhibits, educational resources and internal planning documents. Earlier this July, the White House Domestic Policy Council released a highly critical report claiming the museum actively erases traditional American heritage.

Democratic leaders with oversight responsibility for the Smithsonian have quickly and forcefully condemned the executive order, framing it as a blatant overreach of executive power driven by partisan ideological goals. “This EO is a clear political overreach, driven by an ideological agenda to rewrite American history,” Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, ranking member of the House Administration Committee, wrote on social platform X. “Our Smithsonian institutions do not belong to the President, but to the American people and so does our nation’s history.”

This new directive is not the first administration action targeting the Smithsonian. In March, Trump issued an earlier order mandating the institution eliminate what he described as “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from its programming. The broader push to alter the Smithsonian’s approach is part of Trump’s wider administration-wide effort to overhaul American cultural institutions, which he claims have been corrupted by left-wing “woke” ideology. To date, Trump has signed multiple executive orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government, a policy shift that has already sparked multiple legal challenges from opponents.

Founded in 1846 and primarily funded by U.S. federal appropriations, the Smithsonian Institution operates 21 museums across Washington D.C., Virginia and New York, including the National Museum of American History, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Zoo, among others. The complex draws between 15 and 30 million free visitors annually. The Smithsonian has not yet issued a public response to requests for comment from the BBC on the latest executive order.

Tensions between the second Trump administration and the European Union have escalated sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to launch a formal trade investigation into Brussels and threatened steep new tariffs over a series of antitrust penalties imposed on major American technology firms.

The announcement comes just days after the European Commission levied an €890 million ($1 billion) fine on Alphabet Inc.’s Google, finding that the company had abused its market position to lock out competing digital services. This is not the first case of European regulators targeting large U.S. tech players: Trump claims that Apple has received $15 billion in fines, Meta has been ordered to pay $3 billion, and Amazon faces $2.5 billion in penalties, all from EU enforcement bodies.

In a post on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump, the president lashed out at the EU’s regulatory actions, arguing that the bloc has systematically targeted American companies for unfair financial punishment. “The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” he wrote. Trump demanded that all existing fines against the four U.S. tech giants be “entirely reversed”, confirming that he would immediately initiate a Section 301 investigation into what he called European regulators’ practice of “robbing American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer”.

Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 grants the Office of the United States Trade Representative broad authority to investigate and respond to unfair foreign trade practices. This marks the latest in a string of such probes launched by the second Trump administration since it took office last year. The new tariff threat comes only 24 hours after Trump unveiled a fresh round of tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 major trading partners, including the EU, the United Kingdom and China.

Google spokesman José Castañeda told the BBC that the company has worked diligently to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the landmark regulatory framework governing large digital platforms, but has raised repeated concerns about the economic and competitive impact of recent European Commission decisions. “We appreciate the engagement by the administration and US government,” Castañeda added.

As of publication, representatives for Apple, Meta, Amazon and the European Commission have not issued public responses to Trump’s statements, after multiple requests for comment were sent. This dispute is not without precedent: shortly before Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Apple CEO Tim Cook personally called Trump to complain about EU penalties against the company, coming on the heels of a years-long legal battle over Apple’s unpaid tax obligations in Europe. Trump has a long history of clashing with European regulators over trade and regulatory policy, dating back to his first term in office.