How a canceled state dinner highlights a fading White House tradition

(CNN)In a time of so many would-have-been, could-have-been calendar appointments, this week should have seen an official White House state dinner. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had invited royalty to the White House: the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia. The former is part of one of Europe’s oldest lines of nobility, and the latter, a glamorous former journalist with a standing spot on several international best-dressed lists. February’s public announcement, preceded already by several weeks of planning, had heralded a celebration of the relationship between the host and guest nations. But the White House pulled the plug after the onset of a devastating number of coronavirus cases in Spain by early March, including some inside Palace circles. However, even if the state dinner had taken place as scheduled, it would only have been the third of the Trump administration, behind one held for Australia in September 2019, and one for France, in April 2018. Trump’s two dinners is shy of several of his recent predecessors and is the least of any modern American president by this time. At this exact point in their presidencies, Barack Obama had hosted six state dinners, George W…. Read full this story

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