“Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama joked. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
Trump sat silently as the crowd laughed at his expense. Media lore claims the 2011 dinner was the moment that led Trump to seek the White House.
Now, 15 years later, Trump will return to the dinner on April 25 as the nation’s commander in chief. The moment could provide Trump a captive audience made up of the media outlets he’s long lambasted as “Fake News.”
“I’m sure he’ll roast the press,” said Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist.
Matt Dole, a GOP strategist, put it even more bluntly, noting that Trump’s love-hate relationship with the press has been a factor for decades.
“I think he still anticipates a tough night,” Dole said. “And so I don’t think he will feel restraint in sharing what he really feels about the press corps.
“I think we could see Donald Trump speaking about the media the way Donald Trump spoke about the Democrats at the State of the Union,” Dole said, referencing Trump’s notable moment forcing Democrats to either stand and clap or sit down when he called for prioritizing U.S. citizens over illegal immigrants.
Since he first became president in 2017, Trump has boycotted the dinner every year in office, claiming the media was biased against him and derisively branding reporters as “fake news.” He was the first president, since former President Calvin Coolidge attended the event in 1924, not to show up at the event.
The highlight of the dinner is almost always the comedian who is chosen to give remarks and the president’s own funny take on press freedoms. The WHCA avoided controversy this year by selecting famed mentalist Oz Pearlman, not known for publicly excoriating Trump, as the entertainer for the dinner. But that doesn’t mean Trump is in for an easy night.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to take it light on him, because he’s there in person or in the coverage the next day,” Dole said. “What will be interesting is that it will certainly be the most talked about press prom in a decade.”
WHCA president Weijia Jiang said in a statement that the group is “happy the president has accepted our invitation and look forward to hosting him.”
But the statement belies the rough year reporters have faced under Trump’s second term.
The White House has had a somewhat strained relationship with reporters after it unsuccessfully attempted to kick the Associated Press out of the White House Correspondents Association pool rotation last year. The administration also immediately took over assignment duties for press coverage inside the White House beginning last year, including adding a New Media pool, which allows newer or untraditional outlets and influencers to cover Trump.
The White House has also limited reporters’ access to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s office.
Trump infamously appeared to call Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, “piggy” on Air Force One last year. The president has also sued multiple media outlets.
Yet the fact that Trump is deciding to attend the dinner indicates he is willing to enter the proverbial lion’s den.
“President Trump showing up to the WHCD is the most on-brand plot twist imaginable,” added a GOP operative who has worked on past presidential campaigns. “Love him or hate him, and plenty in that room fall into the latter camp. He’s the most accessible president of the modern era. And you can bet he’ll remind every reporter there of it.”
The president has claimed that because the WHCA had asked him “very nicely” to attend, he would accept the invitation. Trump’s attendance also comes as the White House is planning a big rollout for the 250th anniversary of the United States.
TRUMP TO ATTEND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER FOR FIRST TIME AS PRESIDENT
“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation,” he wrote on Truth Social. “And work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
Trump’s insistence on making this year’s 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding a momentous occasion is likely a key reason he accepted the invitation, GOP strategists told the Washington Examiner. And it will likely give him a chance to blast the media, with whom he has regularly sparred.
“It’s a pivotal midterm election year,” O’Connell said. “And he is the nation’s marketer in chief, and he recognizes that this is an opportunity to not only showcase his influence, but shake the national conversation while celebrating a milestone in a high-level event.”
