President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Friday with “Bernie & Sid in the Morning” on 77 WABC that he would probably skip the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, his second time not attending the annual event as President of the United States of America.
“It’s unlikely I will do the White House correspondents dinner this year,” Trump said just before he called the news media “so bad and so fake.”
The Hill reported that White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Margaret Talev confirmed that the President does not plan to be part of the dinner, noting that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be attending the event.
“The White House has informed us that the President does not plan to participate in this year’s dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment,” Talev wrote in a statement. “In keeping with tradition, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also will represent the administration at the head table. The April 28 dinner celebrates award-winning reporting, scholarship winners and the vital role of the First Amendment and the free press in American democracy.”
Last year, Trump skipped his first WHCA dinner as president and instead attended a campaign rally, irking many in the press who bashed the President for not showing respect to the reporters who cover his administration.
“I feel bad because a lot of White House reporters are going to have to go and cover that and not come to our own dinner,” former WHCA member Julie Mason told The Hill last year. “It’s one thing for him to stay home, and that was fine. And he can just tweet about us and be mean, and that would be kind of funny, and it would feel right. But for him to stage a competing event — we just can’t even have our dinner? We just can’t even do that?”
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