White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Monday afternoon briefing that Trump would be in attendance whenever the event takes place, but left open whether other Cabinet officers, including Vance, would too.

“I can assure you the president intends to attend the event, as he has told all of you publicly,” Leavitt told reporters. “I don’t want to rule in or out the vice president’s attendance, but certainly that’s a conversation that will take place.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the WHCA for comment. The association is also still in assessment mode and determining “how to proceed,” according to a statement from WHCA president Weijia Jiang.

The push to move forward has the support of both the White House and many in the press corps, even as organizers face the challenge of reassembling the event under heightened security concerns and a compressed timeline.

Steve Scully, a former president of the WHCA, told Sirius XM on Monday the logistics of trying to plan another dinner in a short period were extremely complicated.

“I’ve planned these dinners, it takes a year to put these together,” said Scully. “First of all, the dinner price is $495 a ticket. Are you going to pay for another ticket to have a meal and do this?”

“My guess is, and I don’t know,” said Scully. “They will do some sort of short program to celebrate the First Amendment, to give out the awards.”

Scully added that there was doubt whether the event would return to the Washington Hilton in the future given security concerns.

“I can also guarantee they will likely look for another venue next year, presumably the [Walter E. Washington] Convention Center, which is a much more secure environment,” said Scully.

Some WHCA members, of which the Washington Examiner is a member, said they wanted the rescheduled dinner to take place, but acknowledged the effort will take time to organize.

“I don’t think there needs to be a hard deadline, even though the president said that,” said one White House reporter, who requested anonymity. “I think that was just what he threw out there. I think it should be rescheduled, and I would like to see it rescheduled.

“It seems like it would be a very unitive event if everyone could get together again in a safe place,” the reporter said. “But I guess you have to balance that with the realities of finding a safe place and the realities of getting everything together in a timely manner.”

A second WHCA member said that they “support it because I think a free press should not be deterred by those who want to commit acts of violence, and I don’t think this press corps was deterred for one second from doing our job.”

“I think it’s important to still come together and celebrate the First Amendment,” the member said. “And also I think it’s really important that we still recognize the people who were slated to receive awards as well as the scholarship recipients, and make sure that they have their moments for all their hard work as well.”

The annual dinner is a fundraising event that celebrates the First Amendment. A portion of the dinner is dedicated to journalists who were awarded for their coverage of the president and supporting young journalists via scholarships.

SECRET SERVICE ‘CHANGES POSSIBLE’ AFTER WHCA DINNER SHOOTING

This year marked the first time Trump attended the event as president after a yearslong boycott. Due to the shooting, Trump did not give his prepared remarks to the more than 2,500 journalists gathered for the event.

The alleged gunman, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was apprehended by Secret Service but managed to shoot at least one agent, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, in the chest.