Trump’s attention fetish produced a bizarre scene: administration officials and reporters reconvened for a formal press briefing. The photos frame his boys’ club in tuxedos against women reporters in evening dresses, juggling mics and notes, doing real work. Case in point: the thoroughly poised Kaitlan Collins, whom Trump has taken every opportunity to belittle in person on live TV.

Gilded Age and Days of Rage

At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the photos show a country on edge: privilege upstairs, gunfire downstairs, and Trump turning violence into security leverage and a hero’s glow.

Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP