Trump to skip annual media dinner
Reporters’ group says it won’t cancel April 29 event, Ronald Reagan was the last president to sit out in 1981
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said he will skip this year’s annual dinner hosted by the White House press corps, intensifying an ongoing war against a section of the news media that he and several aides have accused of being hostile to him.
“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year,” Trump tweeted on Saturday, becoming the first president in 38 years to miss the dinner, an annual event whose highlight is a light speech by the president.
“Please wish everyone well and have a great evening,” he added.
On Friday, the White House press office had blocked major news outlets such as the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Buzzfeed, and Politico from attending a briefing by press secretary Sean Spicer. Several other organisations such as The Associated Press, TIME and The Washington Post stayed away too in solidarity with those barred.
In a now-famous 77-minute news briefing, Trump accused media of reporting “fake news”, and had claimed his administration was working like a “finetuned machine”.
His chief strategist Steven Bannon called the media the “opposition party”.
The White House press corps said it will go ahead with the dinner, saying: “The WHCA takes note of President Donald Trump’s announcement on Twitter that he does not plan to attend the dinner, which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic.”