On Saturday, Trump announced over Twitter that he will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year, an annual event that the president and first family typically attend in order to raise money for scholarships and awards for aspiring journalists. It's also become a time and space for the president to crack a couple of his own jokes, as Obama has done in the past.
However, it's no secret that Trump has expressed an extreme distrust in the media, and his absence at this year's dinner--slated for April 29--will make him the first president to miss the dinner in 30 years, the last president to miss it being Ronald Regan in 1981.
According to NBC, shortly after Trump's announcement on Twitter, the White House Correspondents' Association responded with a statement saying that the dinner will still go on as planned:
"The WHCA takes note of President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter that he does not plan to attend the dinner, which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic...We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession."
Read the full report via NBC here.
