The White House is trying to have it every way possible in a high-stakes dispute over its speedy deportation of hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador. It is unlikely to end tidily, which may very well have been the point all along.

In a subtle dig, reporters at the annual Gridiron Club dinner—which brings together prominent members of the Washington, D.C. press corps each year—broke with a 140-year-old tradition by declining to toast the sitting president.