President Donald Trump was honored alongside CBS News’ White House correspondents at a private event at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Thursday night hosted by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison ahead of the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.

The gathering, which was not open to the press, marked what is expected to be Trump’s sole appearance at a WHCD event outside of the dinner itself, which he is set to attend for the first time as president on Saturday. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was among those in attendance, though Deadline reported on Thursday that most of those invited were “from Paramount corporate, rather than the news division.”

An invitation to the dinner described the event as an “intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House and CBS White House correspondents.”

Dozens of protesters gathered across the street from the Institute of Peace to protest the dinner and Paramount’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which Ellison has been lobbying the Trump administration, the Department of Justice and Congress to approve. 

Opponents of the merger — including thousands who signed onto a letter earlier this month raising concerns about the potential deal — have said it will result in higher costs and fewer opportunities and jobs for those in the industry.

Attorney Norm Eisen, a co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action; Alvaro Bedoya, who served as FTC commissioner under President Joe Biden; Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Becca Balint (D-VT); and Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen, a left-wing consumer advocacy group that organized the protest, were among those who spoke at the demonstration. 

The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s requests for comment on the dinner.