WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will not attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner later this month, snubbing the high-profile event amid tensions with the press.
Trump will skip the April 26 event, according to several outlets, as he did for all four of the dinners held during his first administration. His absence is the latest escalation in a feud between the Trump administration and the White House Correspondents’ Association, which hosts the annual dinner.
Trump won’t attend even after the WHCA pulled comedian Amber Ruffin from the speaking lineup for the televised event over concerns of recent anti-Trump comments. The WHCA said the decision was made “to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
Still, tensions between Trump officials and the WHCA have been nearing a boiling point for months, especially after the White House announced in February it would be taking over the press corps’ rotating assignments for journalists covering the president. That decision breaks decades of tradition of the WHCA handling the affairs of journalists in the press pool, prompting pushback from the association.
“If the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage,” the board wrote in an email to members in March.
The WHCA has also pushed back against efforts by the administration to limit access to some news outlets based on their reporting, most notably the ban on Associated Press reporters from accessing pooled events due to the outlet’s style to use “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America.”
“The reason the White House wants control of the briefing room is the same reason they took control of the pool: to exert pressure on journalists over coverage they disagree with,” the board continued in the email. “This was explicit with The Associated Press, where the president and his staff plainly said their removal from covering presidential events was punishment for their style guide.”
Other high-profile members of Trump’s administration have said they won’t attend the annual dinner, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“This is a group of journalists who’ve been covering the White House for decades,” Leavitt told former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on his podcast last month. “They started this organization because the presidents at the time were not doing enough press conferences. I don’t think we have that problem anymore under this president.”