President Trump’s return to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner next week after an April assassination attempt will come with a dramatically tightened security operation — including digital tickets, a smaller venue and fewer opportunities for uninvited guests to slip inside.
The rescheduled July 24 event at the Waldorf Astoria will not only forgo traditional printed passes for digital ones, but the event will no longer feature the sprawling cocktail receptions where virtually anyone could blend into the crowd.
The Waldorf ballroom holds roughly 1,000 guests — less than a quarter of the Washington Hilton’s capacity — making it easier for the Secret Service and other security to vet attendees.
“We have confidence in the security plan for this event, and we’ve secured that site before,” Secret Service spokesman Tom Lynch told The Post.
The heightened precautions come after alleged gunman Cole Thomas Allen, a Washington Hilton hotel guest during the April 25 confab, was able to enter near the ballroom before authorities say he attempted to assassinate the president.
Allen made a three-night reservation from April 24 to April 26 at the Hilton, according to the US Attorney’s Office for DC. He traveled by train from Los Angeles, and ran through a security checkpoint armed with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun and .38 caliber pistol.
Horrified guests crouched under their dinner tables for protection.
In just one of the security failures at the April dinner, a police dog appears to have gotten a whiff of the would-be assassin — only to be pulled away seconds before Allen sprang into action.
The threat to Trump, outlined in Allen’s bizarre manifesto, is far from gone. The president said on his recent trip to Turkey that he was No. 1 on Iran’s kill list.
And he told The Post he has “left instructions” in the event that they are successful.
But authorities are confident the massive security envelope in place for the redo dinner will hold.
A security firm has been brought in to screen visitors, and only those who get through with valid tickets will make their way toward magnetometers operated by the Secret Service, according to officials.
With the new venue and clamped down security, one thing will remain the same: mentalist Oz Pearlman will be performing.
Pearlman was in mid-trick when shots were fired outside the ballroom in April and cancelled a scheduled appearance on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show two days later.
The Waldorf was previously the Trump International Hotel in DC, and the president dined there regularly during his first term.
Read the full article here
