Melania Trump Snubs Rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner as Security Threats Against Family Rocket
Melania Trump will not be attending the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on July 24.
July 24 2026, Updated 5:41 a.m. ET
Melania Trump will skip the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner as threats against her family intensify.
RadarOnline.com can reveal White House officials have confirmed the first lady, 56, would not be attending the July 24 dinner, which takes place three months after the original event was canceled when a man opened fire in an alleged assassinate attempt on Donald Trump.
Melania's No-Show Down To 'Prior Commitment'
A White House spokesperson confirmed Melania would not be joining husband Donald Trump at the event.
Little details were given to explain her no-show, but a White House spokesperson said it was due to a prior commitment.
JD Vance will also be absent from the dinner, having just welcomed his fourth child with wife Usha.
The rescheduled event will take place at the Waldorf Astoria, a change from its usual venue at the Washington Hilton, where the alleged assassination attempt took place.
Cole Tomas Allen, the alleged gunman, pleaded not guilty to all charges during a court appearance in May.
Increased Security Presence
Suspect Cole Tomas Allen allegedly targeted Trump at April event.
As a result, Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), the event is set to be a "more intimate gathering." The new date was announced in June and was decided by the WHCA board in an email to association members.
"This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program. It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence. As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above," Jiang said in a statement.
The first lady’s notable absence at the dinner comes amid an intensifying Iran war, which has led to increased attacks on the president and his family.
Chilling Threats Against Trumps
Threats against the president and the first lady have rocketed since outbreak of Iran war.
In one chilling instance, billboards showing the corpses of the first lady, her stepdaughter Ivanka Trump, and her son, Barron Trump, appeared in Iran.
The billboard showed the Trumps with their eyes shut and apparent bruising under their eyes. The word "killed" in English also appeared above each of their pictures.
"Hey, terrorist Get ready to die," the haunting billboard installed above a highway in Tehran reads.
In another instance, a picture of the Republican president was displayed above a coffin at a mural in Palestine Square in central Tehran.
The president’s five children — Barron, Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany — also appeared in the mural, against the backdrop of the White House. "Blood for blood," the slogan in the mural read.
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The rescheduled White House Correspondents dinner will take place at a different venue,
According to Secret Service Director Sean Curran, advance teams have already visited the dinner’s new location and established a new security plan. Curran also noted that security checkpoints have been put in place ahead of the upcoming dinner.
"That’s sometimes what people don’t understand. If we didn’t need the magnetometers, we wouldn’t set them up," Curran said of the metal detectors that were being removed when the gunman rushed to the facility during the April shooting.
"We do expect bad people to show up. It’s just a reality of where we are."
Secret Service agents have also said that they are not treating the event as a dinner, but rather as a gathering of high-profile officials.
"We're not looking at this as a redo of a dinner," Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said. "We're looking at this as a presidential site with cabinet members and other protectees there, just like every site we do everywhere we go."
