The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner will go on, after all — President Donald Trump included.

After a gunman disrupted the gala in April — prompting the evacuation of Trump and top administration officials, and sending journalists diving under their tables — the dinner ended without any speeches or awards.

On Tuesday, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter and the president of the correspondents group, said that the event would be restaged July 24.

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang said in a statement.

Trump, who was set to deliver a speech at the April event, praised the decision, calling it “a sign of Strength and Fortitude” in a social media post.

Trump said that he might or might not deliver the scathing critique of the news media that he had promised for the dinner in April. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out,” he wrote. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

The president had been a vocal proponent of rescheduling the dinner, even offering the use of his forthcoming ballroom at the White House for future events.

Jiang did not announce a venue for the event, which has long been held at the Washington Hilton. But Trump said the rescheduled gala would be held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the former site of the Trump International Hotel.

It was in the concrete bowels of the Hilton where, on April 25, an armed man rushed a security checkpoint, prompting Secret Service officers to open fire. Guests inside the ballroom were eating a course of burrata and spring peas when the commotion occurred. Law enforcement agents sprinted to the dais to evacuate Trump and members of his Cabinet.

The dinner broke up shortly after that. In the weeks since, there has been a lively debate in Washington media and social circles about whether the gala should be rescheduled at all. The logistics of once again gathering hundreds of journalists and politicians from around the country seemed daunting.

In her statement, Jiang wrote that the July event “will be a more intimate gathering,” and “feature significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures.”

“A free press will not be intimidated into silence,” Jiang wrote.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Michael M. Grynbaum/Salwan Georges
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