Updated on: April 25, 2026 / 8:28 PM EDT — AP
Update: President Trump was evacuated from the dinner unharmed after shots were fired outside the ballroom.
President Donald Trump attended Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington — his first appearance as president — placing the administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on public display. First lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance were also in attendance.
The annual event, hosted by the organization of reporters who cover the White House, traditionally features remarks about the First Amendment and light roasts of individual journalists. Past presidents have attended occasionally; Trump skipped the dinner during his first term and the first year of his second, though he has appeared there twice before as a private citizen — once in 2011 as a guest during President Barack Obama’s appearance, and in 2015.
This year the WHCA hired mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainer rather than a stand-up comedian. The dinner’s choice to include Trump revived long-running debate over whether it is appropriate for journalists to socialize with the subjects they cover. The New York Times, for example, stopped attending more than a decade ago for that reason. Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, called the event “a bad look” compared with what it once was.
Tensions between the administration and news organizations have been pronounced during Trump’s second term. The administration has publicly berated reporters, fought with outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court, and restricted press access to parts of the Pentagon. On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition urging the WHCA to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
WHCA president and CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang said the dinner “reinforces the importance of the First Amendment” and noted that gathering journalists, newsmakers and the president together is “a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”
Many reporters who attend see the event as an opportunity to generate story ideas and cultivate contacts that can lead to future reporting access and phone calls returned.
News organizations sometimes invite sources as guests. The Associated Press invited Taylor Budowich, a former White House deputy chief of staff who left the administration last year for the private sector; Budowich had been a named defendant when the AP sued the administration after it reduced the outlet’s access over a dispute tied to coverage. AP spokesman Patrick Maks said the organization keeps “professional relationships with people across the political spectrum” because it is “nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public’s interest.”
The WHCA also hands out awards for exemplary reporting, including work that has angered the president. Among the honored pieces were stories such as a Wall Street Journal report about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — reporting that prompted a presidential lawsuit.