White House Reporters Find New Way to Bow to Donald Trump

Eric Lee / Getty Images Even after President Donald Trump secretly put White House reporters in grave danger, the White House Correspondents’ Association is already confirming that he has been invited to next year’s dinner.

This year’s dinner, which was rescheduled after a gunman attempted to storm the venue, was filled with vile insults from Trump toward reporters, including CNN star Kaitlan Collins.

It left many questioning why White House reporters need to get quite so cozy with the officials they cover, particularly at an event this lavish.

Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich began her one-year term leading the association after this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, taking over from CBS’s Weijia Jiang.

In an interview with New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, Heinrich, 37, dismissed criticism of the dinner and confirmed that it will continue, with the president essentially already having an invitation.

“This dinner precedes President Trump.

It will continue after President Trump.

And we will invite the president no matter who the president is every year,” she said.

In the same answer, she appeared to dismiss Trump’s foul insults directed at Collins, as she said it’s just something White House correspondents hear every day.

“For reporters who actually cover the White House and are in front of the president on a daily basis, the stuff that we heard that day is not a shock to us,” she said.

“This is someone we cover closely.

Any number of us have had him push back or snap at a question that we’ve asked or made a comment.” Trump also insulted Heinrich during the dinner, saying she looks “so beautiful, but she can be so nasty.” During Trump’s rant, she just smiled and shrugged onstage.

She added that Trump “already said he’s going to come next year.” The dinner is already planned to be hosted at the Washington Hilton, the hotel where the original ill-fated dinner took place and where it has happened for nearly 60 years.

She noted that if Trump’s people “want to complain about it, that’s fine, but it’s happening.” When asked about criticism from other White House correspondents, including the New York Times’ Peter Baker, who said it is “time to rethink the dinner,” Heinrich dismissed them as people who just don’t get what it’s like to cover Trump.