An annual Washington tradition best known for celebrity guests and a comedy routine by the president continues on Saturday with neither.
The White House Correspondents Association dinner, at the Washington Hilton in D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, will be held without President Donald Trump and the high-profile guests typically invited by news outlets that organize the event. Instead, this year’s dinner will include guests like the high-school journalists who brought down their principal with a story on her faked credentials. (The kids will be guests of HuffPost.)
Trump announced he was skipping the dinner in February, making him the first president in more than three decades to break the tradition. At the time, Trump and his administration were fiercely attacking reporters and media outlets. He described the media as “the enemy of the American people,” threatened to change libel laws so he can more easily sue news organizations, attacked the media for using unnamed sources in stories critical of his administration, and blocked certain outlets, including HuffPost, from attendance at press briefings.
Saturday’s correspondents dinner will still feature a roast of the president, delivered by “The Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj, a Muslim comedian who has condemned Trump’s anti-Muslim actions. It’s a safe bet that there will be plenty of jabs at the president’s expense.
Still, this year’s correspondents dinner will be a diminished affair compared with past years. Much of the star power typically drawn to the dinner will instead be concentrated at an alternative event thrown by “Full Frontal” host Samantha Bee. The New Yorker and Vanity Fair have canceled the extravagant after-parties they typically hold. And Trump is holding a rally at the same time as the dinner, presumably to divert attention from the Washington event.
Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association, said this year’s dinner would focus on its original purpose: funding scholarships for aspiring journalists and recognizing the work of reporters covering the presidency.
“We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession,” Mason said in a statement.
Given Trump’s anti-media attacks, the dinner also is likely to focus on freedom of the press and the media’s watchdog role in government.
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