The White House roast

The Correspondents’ Association awards US$100,000 in scholarships and has a mentoring programme. The annual dinner began in 1921, and Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend in 1924. In 1978, Jimmy Carter declined to attend, citing exhaustion. In 1981, Ronald Reagan delivered remarks by phone while recovering from an assassination attempt. In 2011, Barack Obama roasted Donald Trump — who had questioned Obama’s birth certificate — with jokes.