Guests are now arriving to the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, an event which will include Donald Trump for the first time as a sitting president.
The Republican broke longstanding norms by skipping the dinner multiple times during his previous years in office.
The president is reportedly plotting a revenge-focused speech for the event, though his daughter-in-law Lara Trump promises the address will be more of a charm offensive.
“He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met,” she told Fox & Friends on Saturday. “If they don’t leave there absolutely in love with Donald Trump, I will be shocked.”
The president may be aiming for some punchlines, but this year’s Correspondents’ Dinner won’t feature a top comedian as MC, as has been typical in the past. Instead, mentalist Oz Pearlman will host.
Trump’s return to the Correspondents’ Dinner comes as his administration continues to lock horns with the press.
Earlier this week, FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over a bombshell exposé alleging he drinks excessively and has performed erratically in the job, claims he strongly denies.
Guests begin arriving for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Bring on the Trump and tuxedos.
Guests are streaming into the Washington, D.C., Hilton hotel for tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
You can watch all the action live on our YouTube channel.
Trump attacks ‘failing’ New York Times on eve of Correspondents’ Dinner
President Donald Trump is attacking The New York Times over a recent article, even as he prepares to toast (or maybe roast) the press at this evening’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Trump claimed the paper was attempting to “grossly mischaracterize” recent government efforts to restore Lafayette Park, which sits across from the White House.
The outlet reported that the Trump administration gave an unusually lucrative no-bid contract to spruce up the park to a Maryland construction firm, bucking the usual procedure for government projects, which typically solicit multiple bids before spending taxpayer funds.
“I made a multimillion contribution to the effort, and got others to do the same, but was not in charge of handing out the contract,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That was done by the National Parks Service, and they gave it to the largest and most respected Construction Firm, for many years, in D.C., Clark Construction — A greatly respected firm, by far, the biggest in D.C.”
The administration previously told the paper the awarding of the contract was done in an “above board” manner.
The journalists boycotting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has always had its critics in journalism circles — some take issue with the chummy socializing between reporters and government officials they spend their days covering — but President Trump’s return to the dinner this year has provoked a different level of controversy.
Journalists across the industry have vowed to boycott the event or use their attendance to protest what they see as the president’s attacks on the press.
“The collective weight of the administration’s actions — retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations, frivolous lawsuits against the press, defunding of public broadcasting, dismantling of international broadcasting, physical restrictions on journalists, personal verbal attacks on reporters, assaults on the media in official White House press releases and social media posts, the arrests of journalists, and the pardoning of those who committed violence against the press — represent the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom of the press by a sitting American president,” a group of prominent media figures wrote in a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association, calling on attendees to “speak forcefully” in defense of the press while Trump was in the building.
Others say they’re skipping the event entirely.
“We will not join our media colleagues in partying with Donald Trump, an authoritarian who seeks to curtail the First Amendment and criminalize journalism, who puts masked agents on the street to racially profile and kidnap people and kill people, who jails foreign students for their pro-Palestine speech, who seeks to denaturalize US citizens, who has made it US policy to summarily execute people at sea, who is massacring children and threatening the global economy with his disastrous war in Iran,” the progressive outlet Zeteo wrote in a Saturday note. “There is no reason to don a tuxedo and celebrate this racist wannabe tyrant. There is nothing to be gained by showing up to the dinner with the hopes of offering any small act of protest.”
Journalist David Shuster took a similar tack.
“With the White House Correspondents Association declaring Donald Trump an ‘honoree’ at tonight’s dinner, I declined an organization’s invitation to attend,” he wrote on X. “The sane washing of Trump and his war on the press is dangerous. And the [White House Correspondents’ Association] is an absolute disgrace.”
A new chapter in Trump’s battle with the media
President Trump’s appearance at today’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner comes at a low ebb in his already-fraught relationship with the press.
Earlier this month, President Trump threatened to jail an unnamed reporter after details about the rescue of a downed U.S. pilot in the Iran war made it into the press.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it,” Trump said during a press conference, “and we’re going to say, ‘National security — give it up or go to jail.’ And we know who, and you know who, we’re talking about.”
The president, who helped mainstream the idea that journalists are the “fake news,” has attacked the press throughout his time in office.
Last year, he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the owners of The Wall Street Journal after the paper published details about a lewd letter Trump allegedly sent the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. (The suit was dismissed this month.)
Press will be ‘absolutely in love’ with Trump after WHCD
Donald Trump will finally charm the media during his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, according to his daughter-in-law, despite years of Trump bashing the press.
“He has been preparing to go into this snake pit of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner his entire life,” Lara Trump told Fox & Friends on Saturday. “He’s gonna have jokes. He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. If they don’t leave there absolutely in love with Donald Trump, I will be shocked. They’ve been trying not to love him for so long.”
Trump previously told The Hill that her father-in-law has been working with some “great people” to craft his WHCD routine, a speech which has typically involved a mix of presidential stumping and light roasting of members of the press.
Trump, of course, has a far more fraught relationship with the media than most presidents.
He’s demonized mainstream journalists for years as the “fake news,” and he’s sued major outlets for critical coverage throughout his career.
Is the Correspondents’ Dinner a ‘bad look’?
Each year, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner revives the debate: Is it an ethical red flag for journalists and policymakers to celebrate together?
Some outlets argue that the dinner is an important one for the media and elected leaders alike, highlighting a shared respect for each other and the First Amendment. Hosts at the dinner have regularly pointed out that in many other nations, top entertainers and journalists would not be able to comedically roast their sitting leader.
Others, however, take issue with the appearance of top journalists hobnobbing with the political officials they are supposed to be covering impartially. The New York Times is among the outlets whose reporters do not attend the event.
“What was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look,” Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute journalism think tank, wrote in a recent piece.
Newsom likely to skip WHCD as host makes Trump joke: report
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Donald Trump’s frequent liberal foil, will not likely be in the crowd at this evening’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“I don’t think so,” he told Vanity Fair on Friday, at a pre-WHCD event thrown by the magazine.
Newsom, seen as a likely 2028 presidential hopeful, was reportedly mobbed with glad-handers and barely made it into the event.
Elsewhere at the party, WHCD host Oz Pearlman reportedly made a joke about Donald Trump, the kind of crack that would normally happen at the dinner, back when comedians were still hosting.
A guest reportedly asked Pearlman whether Trump had the stamina to speak for an hour at the dinner.
“Unfortunately,” he said.
Catch up: A history of the White House correspondents’ dinner, from cringeworthy jokes to presidential fury
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual fixture in Washington’s social calendar since its inception shortly after the First World War, has evolved into a unique spectacle. It now serves as a red-carpet event for the capital’s journalistic elite, political staffers, and a diverse array of US business leaders and celebrities, all gathered to witness the US president and a comedian deliver their respective roasts.
Trump starts his day with Iran update and Senate demands
President Trump hasn’t yet sounded off today about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but he’s still been plenty busy so far.
Most notably, the president said he called off plans to send a U.S. delegation to Pakistan for negotiations to end the Iran war.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
In another post, he called on the Senate to eliminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, a Republican-backed package of new voter ID requirements.
Without these measures, Trump warned, the Republicans could face a major loss in the 2026 midterms.
“Not passing the SAVE AMERICA ACT will lead to the the worst results for a political party in the HISTORY of the United States Senate,” he wrote. “An Unrecoverable Death Wish!!! Likewise, the FILIBUSTER – TERMINATE IT NOW!!!”
Trump plans ‘revenge’ speech and hasty exit for WHCD: report
President Trump reportedly plans to slam the media in a speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner then swiftly leave the event.
The president’s speech will be aimed at taking “revenge” on the Washington press, a group the White House regularly calls the “fake news media,” The Daily Beast reports.
Trump will then leave the event, according to the outlet, sparing him the embarrassment of watching as The Wall Street Journal accepts an award for its coverage of how Trump allegedly sent a bawdy birthday card doodle to Jeffrey Epstein.
Last week, Joe Sommerlad had this piece on the award and the potential for an awkward Trump moment at the dinner.
Source: independent.co.uk