President Trump said Friday he will skip this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner and hold a rally instead.
“The dinner is boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to the southern border.
Trump repeated that the dinner is “too negative,” saying, “I like positive things, OK?”
{mosads}The commander in chief has yet to attend the annual event during his presidency, bucking tradition and instead opting to hold campaign rallies the same night as the dinner.
“We’re looking forward to an enjoyable evening of celebrating the First Amendment and great journalists past, present, and future,” WHCA President Olivier Knox told The Hill when asked about Trump’s comments on Friday.
During last year’s WHCA dinner, which raises scholarship money for journalism students, Trump held a rally in Michigan.
That same year, the black-tie fête ignited a media firestorm when the night’s headliner, comedian Michelle Wolf, drew widespread condemnation for her explicit remarks that torched Trump administration officials.
Wolf blasted White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was sitting onstage during the former Netflix talk show host’s remarks, saying “she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye.”
In the wake of the controversy, the WHCA announced last year that it was forgoing its tradition of tapping comedians and late-night TV hosts to serve as the entertainment at its marquee event, and instead has picked presidential biographer Ron Chernow to deliver remarks.
Chernow said in an announcement of his selection that he was asked by the WHCA to “make the case for the First Amendment” at the April 27 dinner, typically attended by lawmakers, journalists and high-profile Hollywood performers.