Networks running scared from Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner

With Donald Trump attending the White House Correspondents Association dinner for the first time as president this month, news networks are fretting about putting their talent in the line of fire, we hear.

“The networks are all having real discussions about having their talent front-and-center like sitting ducks,” says a political source. “A couple of them are really thinking what that’s gonna be like.”

The insider added: “The main talent tend to be clustered toward the front, and you can see them pretty well. For someone [Trump] who doesn’t stay on a script or on a prompter, that’s sort of the unknown.” As far as an emcee, “They don’t have a comedian this year, they have an illusionist which is very strange because everyone is going to want to make themselves disappear.”

(Mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining.)

“[Trump has] never had that kind of audience so close… he does his rallies, but the reporters are in the back and they’re embeds, they’re not the top-tier talent. With the inauguration, you’re not playing to the press the people — you’re there with former presidents and guests. I can’t think of an experience [Trump has] been in where he’ll have that amount of people together collectively who he thinks are his enemies.”

Another media insider said that so far the networks are having trouble filling out their guest lists with Democrats.

“The same parties are being thrown and some new ones,” said the source.

“But people having a hard time getting Democrats as guests at the dinner. The Obama years it was star-studded and everybody wanted to go. The first Trump term, it was all about the First Amendment.

Under Biden, it was less star studded. But this is different — they’re getting administration guests and Republicans on the Hill, but that has been the challenge [getting Democrats] and every news organization wants to have a balanced guest list.”

Last year, Colin Jost hosted the dinner and attendees included a small handful of stars such as “White Lotus” star Jason Isaacs and Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad.”