Linh Pham/Getty Images(HANOI, Vietnam) — President Donald Trump has yet to touch down in Vietnam for his second meeting with with Kim Jong Un, but the North Korean dictator already has scored a point against the United States at the expense of the free press.
The White House press corps was abruptly booted from its hotel workspace in Vietnam Tuesday as another high-profile guest checked in: Kim Jong Un.
It had been rumored in recent days that the North Korean dictator, in an extraordinary coincidence, would also be staying at the same hotel that the White House had also booked for the American press.
As White House reporters checked into the luxury Melia hotel in downtown Hanoi, they were greeted with notes in their rooms explaining that extra security protocols would be in place at the hotel to accommodate the visit of a head of state also staying there.
And by the time the North Korean leader’s motorcade arrived at the hotel, following a nearly 3,000-mile-long ride on an armored train, the American press corps had been notified that its filing center was being uprooted and relocated to an international filing center.
The official notice came in the form of a tweet from the Vietnamese government, complete with speakerphone emojis.
???FYI:
the American Media Center will be relocated from Melia hotel to International Media Center at 91 Tran Hung Dao Hanoi#DPRKUSA #HanoiSummit— MoFAVietNam Spokesperson (@PressDept_MoFA) February 26, 2019
The streets around the Melia hotel had been shut to traffic for hours ahead of Kim’s arrival. As the motorcade drew near, the hotel was put on lockdown, and operations of the elevators were temporarily discontinued.
White House reporters who were outside the hotel were not allowed back inside and were instructed not to use their phones to record any video of the North Korean leader’s arrival. Reporters inside the lobby were also pushed back, with Bloomberg’s Margaret Talev reporting that the blinds were pulled down and a red carpet was rolled out through the lobby of the hotel.
The unprecedented last-minute change came after the White House advance team and TV press representatives already had been on the ground for days, pouring thousands of dollars into a setup that will no longer be used.
While the White House press corps filing center has been shuttered at the hotel, American reporters have been allowed to continue their stay there as guests.
The White House declined to comment for this story.
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