Politics

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is surely hoping that Donald Trump will take a more diplomatic tone later this month when he makes his first appearance as president at the organization’s glitzy dinner in Washington DC, an annual event meant to honor and celebrate journalists and press freedom.

On Monday, Trump threatened to imprison a journalist if they refused to reveal the source of information that a second US airman was still missing after being shot down by Iran last Friday, which he claimed put the service member at risk.

“The person who did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say,” Trump told a packed room of White House reporters, without specifying which reporter and which outlet he was referring to. The comment shocked watchdogs even at a time when the White House has become increasingly hostile to the media.

While some journalists and news organizations have long questioned the optics of the press mingling with the administration officials they cover, those questions have only grown louder after Trump’s threats and actions. In the first 14 months of his second term, Trump’s government has overseen a multi-pronged effort seemingly aimed at curbing news organizations that have been deemed hostile to his administration, threatening (and in some cases filing) lawsuits against media companies, cutting off access at the Pentagon by creating onerous new regulations, and even raiding the home of a Washington Post reporter.