Trump says he will attend White House correspondents dinner
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US President Donald Trump regularly attacks reporters and criticises the media as “fake news,” when he disagrees with the coverage.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association’s (WHCA) annual dinner for the first time as president, joining an event to celebrate the press corps even as his administration has taken unprecedented steps to curtail media access and punish outlets they see as unfavorable.
“The White House Correspondents Association has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner,” Mr Trump said on social media March 2, adding that “it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
Mr Trump notably attended the event in 2011, when then-President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers roasted the real estate mogul as he sat in the audience looking uncomfortable. He returned in 2015.
After his 2016 presidential election victory, however, he would go on to shun the event, becoming the first president to skip the dinner since Mr Jimmy Carter, who did not attend in 1978 and 1980.
The dinner is a fundraiser with proceeds going in part to scholarships for journalism students. But the affair has also been a magnet for celebrities who mingle with politicians and members of the press. As it’s grown in size and attention, the event has been criticised as illustrating a too-cozy relationship between journalists and the people they cover.
Mr Trump and his administration have had an adversarial relationship with the press. He regularly attacks reporters and criticises the media as “fake news,” when he disagrees with the coverage of his presidency. Since returning to office in 2025, the administration has made sweeping changes to press access, including upending press pool operations, the rotating system that allows reporters and photographers to cover the president.
The White House has introduced a new system, where it can handpick which outlets can cover Mr Trump in certain settings, limiting the role of traditional newswires. The Associated Press is challenging a move by White House officials to block them from the press pool.
The dispute between the newswire and White House stems from the AP’s decision to not use the “Gulf of America” terminology the administration prefers.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also established new reporting limits, leading to reporters who did not agree to the changes being forced to hand in their press credentials and lose the ability to report full-time from the building.
The new requirements bar journalists from reporting classified and some unclassified information without permission from the Pentagon.
The correspondents’ association was founded in 1914 after President Woodrow Wilson threatened to do away with news conferences. The group started the annual dinner in 1921 and presidents have traditionally attended.
At a 2018 dinner during Mr Trump’s first term, comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes, including one aimed at then White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, drew backlash. The WHCA said the programme was “meant to offer a unifying message” and that the monologue was “not in the spirit of that mission”.
In 2025, the WHCA dropped plans for comedian Amber Ruffin, who has lambasted Mr Trump, to perform, saying it wanted to focus the dinner on honouring fellow journalists. BLOOMBERG
