By Helen Coster
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, famous for his clashes with reporters and denunciations of the “fake news” media, will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday — his first time as president.
Every year since its inception, the WHCA has invited the sitting president to its annual celebration of press freedom. Except for Trump, all have attended at some point during their presidencies.
After Trump boycotted the black-tie event in his
first term and in 2025, his participation this year has become both the subject of surprise and high anticipation in Washington, particularly given the president's combative, complicated relationship with the press.
He has filed lawsuits against media outlets, dismissed coverage as “fake news” and personally attacked journalists. His administration banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool and restricted reporters’ access at the Pentagon, among other moves.
Yet, he also provides reporters with far more access than his recent predecessors, regularly speaking to journalists on his cell phone and answering their questions during frequent press appearances.
Some within Washington's press corps object to Trump’s presence at the Washington Hilton on Saturday.
"Trump’s entire presidency is, of course, an affront to a free press,” HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Whitney Snyder wrote in a column explaining the outlet's decision to skip the dinner.
Over 350 individual former and current journalists, including former network news anchor Dan Rather, as well as groups including the Society of Professional Journalists, signed a letter calling for the WHCA to use the dinner as an opportunity to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
The letter noted that some journalists plan to wear pocket handkerchiefs or lapel pins featuring the words of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech.
The WHCA says the dinner reinforces the importance of press freedom. “As we mark America's 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure," WHCA President Weijia Jiang said in a statement.
“Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it."
A White House spokesperson referred Reuters to Trump’s March 2 Truth Social post, in which the president said that he previously skipped the event because the press was “extraordinarily bad” to him, but accepted this year.
"In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday," he wrote, "and the fact that these “Correspondents” now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, 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!"
For many Trump chroniclers, the dinner holds a fabled place in his story. As a private citizen in 2011, Trump attended the dinner when Democratic President Barack Obama roasted him from the stage. Trump appeared not to take the jokes well, giving rise to a storyline that the event helped crystallize Trump’s decision to run in 2016, a theory Trump has denied.
The president is due to speak on Saturday for about 40 minutes, and is likely to have some choice words for the press seated in the audience alongside Washington's political power players.
His remarks will follow a series of escalating confrontations with news organizations. Trump's FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to investigate ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over on-air remarks and urged stations to drop his show or face possible fines and license revocations.
This week, the New York Times reported that the FBI began investigating a New York Times reporter after she wrote a critical story about its director. The FBI said that the New York Times story is not true.
Trump has filed and settled lawsuits with ABC and the parent company of CBS over their coverage, while suing the Wall Street Journal over an article describing a birthday card to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s signature. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed that defamation lawsuit.
The birthday card story is one of several from the Journal that the WHCA is honoring Saturday.
Dinner starts with red carpet arrivals at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) on Saturday and Trump will speak after 10 p.m.
(Reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker)
