President Trump says in a new interview that he will likely skip the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, his second time skipping the annual event as president.
In an interview Friday with “Bernie & Sid in the Morning” on 77 WABC, the president said he will “probably” not attend the annual gala hosted by the White House Press Association.
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“It’s unlikely I will do the White House correspondents dinner this year,” Trump told the hosts, before calling the news media “so bad and so fake.”
White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Margaret Talev confirmed that the president does not plan to participate in the dinner, noting that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be attending the event.
“The White House has informed us that the president does not plan to participate in this year’s dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment,” Talev wrote in a statement.
“In keeping with tradition, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also will represent the administration at the head table. The April 28 dinner celebrates award-winning reporting, scholarship winners and the vital role of the First Amendment and the free press in American democracy.”
Trump, who frequently criticizes the national news media, often targets negative news stories about his administration or outlets that cover his presidency critically as “fake news.”
Last year, the president declined to attend his first WHCA dinner as president instead attending a campaign rally.
The decision to hold a competing media event last year irked many in the press, who criticized the president for not showing respect to the reporters who cover his administration.
“I feel bad, because a lot of White House reporters are going to have to go and cover that and not come to our own dinner,” former WHCA member Julie Mason told The Hill last year.
“It’s one thing for him to stay home, and that was fine. And he can just tweet about us and be mean, and that would be kind of funny, and it would feel right. But for him to stage a competing event — we just can’t even have our dinner? We just can’t even do that?”