Democrats elect Tom Perez as new chairman

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Sunday announced that he would skip the glitzy White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) annual dinner, to become the first US President to miss the gala in decades amidst his raging tiff with the media.

“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!,” Trump tweeted.

The black-tie dinner, which raises money for journalism scholarships, takes place every spring and is usually attended by the president, journalists, celebrities and Washington insiders.

The last president to miss the dinner was Ronald Reagan, who sat out because he was he recovering from an assassination attempt in 1981, although he still delivered remarks by phone, CNN reported.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), Richard Nixon was the last president to simply skip the event, doing so in 1972.

Trump’s announcement came a day after the White House excluded several major broadcasters and newspapers like The New York Times, CNN and BBC from an offcamera press briefing. He has frequently described negative news coverage as “fake” and accused the media of being the “opposition party” and on Friday delivered his most slashing broadside yet, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that major news outlets were “the enemy of the people”.

The WHCA dinner was held for the first time in Washington DC in 1920. This year’s dinner has been scheduled for April 29. “The level of tension seemed incongruous with a black-tie event that is typically a jocular, if occasionally sharp-edged evening. The dinner, which has attracted A-list celebrities in recent years, features a presidential roast of reporters and a comic routine by a notable entertainer. Presidents are expected to be selfdeprecating, which Mr Trump is decidedly not,” The New York Times said.