The president doesn’t want to be related to it.
It was Saturday night in Washington, where many of the town’s top journalists, editors and TV anchors gathered at Hyatt Sales. There they attended the annual White Tie Dinner held by Gridiron Club, which was founded in 1885. Usually, the president goes with senior members of their administration. It was the opportunity for politicians and media toast and gently to each other (the club’s motto is “Singe, Not Burn”). It’s a club and a comfortable thing. This year seems to have condensed.
“I invited the president, vice president, national security adviser and home secretary,” said Judy Woodruff, president of the club PBS News. “Everyone refused.”
“I was told that the Secretary of State will not be available,” she added.
Mr. Trump’s absence—and any member of his inner circle—is still the latest reminder of a series of presidency, and he has no intention of attracting Washington institutions or playing any game. He hardly wanted to play here for the first time, but he had some small efforts at that time. He did go to the grill dinner in 2018, and his daughter Ivanka became a messenger the following year.
The Grill Club has tried in vain for weeks to attract cabinet members to Saturday’s dinner. Only one emerged: Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. CBS News’s Margaret Brennan joked that Mr Turner was “the opposite of designated survivors.”
Once news comes that the president and his entourage stay away, Republicans who were originally planning to attend, such as Chris Lacivita, one of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign managers, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, was bail for the event. Those who showed up seemed to regret it. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll walked out in a joke about Vice President JD Vance.
A White House official who skipped the dinner privately dismissed the club and its members as Mr. Trump’s base was sent to Washington to destroy him.
So maybe “sing, don’t burn” will never be possible when the president sets up a billionaire wielding links to tear down towns. Everyone goes to their corners so that they can blend together the idea of Kumbaya with songs and dance numbers, which seems slightly ridiculous.
Regarding the ruthlessness of the Democrats, Elon Musk turned to the far right, and the populism of the Ivy League educated vice president and his wife. A rather thrilling Chilean sea bass was sent into big fish, including David M. Rubenstein, David M. New Yorker Evan Osnos; Peter Mandelson, British ambassador to the United States; James Carville, Democratic combat axe; and Kaitlan Collins of CNN.
There are many acid jokes about Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post and Will Lewis, the man he appointed as publisher. “As Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis always say, all good things have to end,” Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg cracked.
At one point, the banquet hall applauded Ruth Marcus, a longtime Washington Post columnist who resigned from the newspaper last week due to the ongoing intervention of Mr. Bezos and Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Bezos was here for dinner last year. So are President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his Vice President Kamala Harris.
The president usually has toasts, and even if he isn’t there, this doesn’t happen on Saturday. “We are sorry for President Trump, Vice President Vance is not with us,” Ms. Woodruff said at the dinner.
But are they really? It’s tricky to say why or if the Hyatt Hotel really wants Mr. Trump there.
“This is one of the norms of this town,” Goldberg said. “We should all coexist, not for bad banquet food, but because it’s a democratic unified way.”
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Goldberg posted the entire Atlantic question, detailing “how Trump and Trumpism pose an existential threat to the United States and to the ideas that make it vivid.” Why should a person gather on the existence threat to the United States? Instead, why do anyone want to party with people called existential threats?
“Do they really think they are the first group of officials in Washington, and are criticized by the media?” Mr. Goldberg asked. “They aren’t that naive. That’s the point – you’re going to do something you don’t want to do to achieve a bigger cause, which keeps a potentially dispersed country together.”
It’s easy to imagine why Trump left. He always stays in touch with public anger (and often leads to a craze), and the only public hates Washington itself may be the news outlet that covers it. It was a good politics for him to use this group of people as foil. Plus, his Fire War against the press is no joke. Litigation, injunctions, intimidation tactics, and the Moscow-like chill that fell on the news media did not make laughter ridicule.
The Grill Club played a video at the dinner showing Mr. Trump’s appearance in 2018, his first semester. It was fascinating how mean and entertaining his self-deprecating and playing style was even just one night.
Mr. Trump has something he doesn’t have this time: his own agency. The anti-establishment members have their own rituals and fortresses. At night at the exclusive member club near the White House, some enemies’ cabinet secretary can be found at night at night. Young Trump has their own club on Capitol Hill called Butterworth’s. Magazine billionaires bought luxury homes in good places in town and hosted their own dinners. As for the ball and the banquet hall? Well, that’s what Mar-a-Lago is for.
On a small street in Georgetown, Scogna, there is a small formal wear shop. Here, the official Washington type is renting their white ties, tails and tuxedoes to achieve its spring-building tradition. For decades, a 75-year-old man named Ismet Dil has taken care of the store. He was there the day before the grill dinner. Business is as slow as ever.
“It’s a bit sad this year,” Mr. Deer said.
