President Trump on Saturday night reportedly joked that he was late to the Gridiron Club dinner because Jared Kushner couldn’t get through security.
Trump spoke at the Gridiron Club’s white tie dinner, at which dozens of journalists and politicians gather to trade barbs. The club extends a standing invitation to the president.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been under fire over his security clearance in recent weeks, which was downgraded from top secret to secret as part of a policy overhaul by chief of staff John Kelly.
{mosads}Kushner had been operating under an interim top-secret security clearance during his time in the White House, which was reportedly being held up by the Russia investigation. Kushner’s foreign business dealings have reportedly become a focus of the investigation.
Trump has not yet announced whether he will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this year. He skipped the dinner last year, during a particularly tumultuous period of his relationship with the press.
Trump frequently attacks the media as “fake news,” and has focused his ire specifically on CNN and The New York Times, which he often refers to as “failing.”