Tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be smaller and a bit more sober than the gala that was marred by gun violence in April.

It will be held at a different hotel at a different time of the year. But the same rifts between Trump and the press will be fully on display.

President Trump, aka America’s chief media critic, will speak to a room full of journalists, many of whom have been swept up in his government-wide pressure campaign against the independent press.

White House correspondents will also take to the podium and affirm the importance of the First Amendment — a unique opportunity given that Trump will be there to hear it.

“The dinner” (as it’s colloquially known in DC) has many critics who say media execs, editors and correspondents shouldn’t be mingling with administration officials who treat the press as the enemy. Moreover, some April attendees had no appetite for a July redo.

But the correspondents’ association felt it was important to finish what they started in April; hand out the group’s annual awards; and make a statement about the enduring power of the free press.

“America has spent the past year talking about the fabric of our democracy as we celebrate its 250th anniversary,” organizer Weijia Jiang told me. “Of all years, this was not the one to allow our annual celebration of the First Amendment be ripped away. More than ever, we have to recognize the freedoms that make us who we are.”

CNN’s special TV coverage of the dinner will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern. It will be anchored by John Berman and Laura Coates, the same pair who were on the air when the shooting upended everything.

The president is slated to speak at 8:55 p.m., according to his official White House schedule. Karoline Leavitt says the speech “will be a combination of unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious, all at the same time, if you can imagine that. One thing I can assure you, it will be entertaining.”

Entertaining for whom?