The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday is the hottest ticket in town, but a tempest is brewing among journalists on Donald J. Trump’s presence at the posh gathering.

This is a moment in the tales of our embattled city. It will be Trump’s first time at the dinner, a chance for the Fourth Estate to speak truth to his power.

Two hundred and fifty members of the old-guard media wrote a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association, urging the younger set to confront the way his White House beats — or eats — the press.

CBS News invited Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to break bread at its table. How’s that going to go? Hegseth is trying to restrict reporters working in the building.

Trump’s invective against the press started long ago as an explicit strategy. You know his scathing insults: “enemy of the people,” “fake news” and so on. He’s gotten worse as time goes on, hushing and insulting women correspondents: “Quiet, piggy.”

Nobody in the press corps spoke out to support their colleagues. What a shame.

Oh, the spring thing used to be old-fashioned fun, all dressed up in April sun, with lighthearted laughs served along with steak, red wine and chocolate confections.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, speaking during their presidencies, showed they could make 3,000 people laugh at the same time in the same room. Obama has perfect comedic timing. For one evening every year, Washingtonians could mix and match.

Legend has it that Trump was so angry at Obama’s mocking roast of his reality show, “The Apprentice,” that smoke came out of his ears and he decided to run for president.

Last year, the Canadian ambassador’s husband sat at my table even as Trump waged his war of words with our worthy neighbor. The time before that, I ran into Antony Blinken, Joe Biden’s secretary of state. “Interesting times,” he said.

These times are even more interesting, I know, right?

Nothing’s going right for Trump: tariffs, gas prices, poll numbers, his attack on the pope, his war on Iran.

The media should not treat Trump as business as usual. The president may almost surely spark business as unusual, as he’s famously unable to take or tell a joke. Irony and self-deprecation are not in his skill set.

In fact, he’s been shouting at generals for weeks over the Iran debacle. What if he throws a tantrum and storms out between courses? One award will be given to honor a story that reported a lewd birthday card he allegedly drew for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

I can see an ugly scene, a major violation of the evening’s etiquette.

Some say a self-respecting journalist would never be seen at the dinner, which in theory celebrates our constitutional rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. The New York Times doesn’t buy tables anymore. The president is (almost) always present on the dais.

Letter signer Dan Rather, now in his 90s, is especially critical of Trump as a clear and present danger to democracy. He used to clash with Richard M. Nixon, but Nixon was quaint compared to Trump’s invective toward today’s meek and mild press corps.

I worked at CBS News-London when Rather was the “Evening News” anchor. As far as I’m concerned, Rather walks on water.

Opinion was mixed in a small survey I took in a Capitol newsroom. One writer said, “It’s a good year not to be going.”

Another said, “The dinner is good for source development in that setting.”

I’m caught between the old and new schools. After Vietnam War and Watergate lies, the old guard was more questioning of authority.

And I think a protest should be stronger than pocket squares of the First Amendment, CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s idea. What say you?

CBS News White House correspondent and WHCA president Weijia Jiang is no Fightin’ Lightning Dan Rather.

The fact is, the media industry has undergone hard times in recent years — newspapers most of all. Meanwhile, the executive branch, the president, has grabbed more power.

I am not going, in my own private protest.

Said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine): “I’d much rather be in Maine.”

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