President Trump will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday — his first time at the event as president. He skipped the dinners during both of his previous terms, a decision linked to his often adversarial relationship with the news media.
The White House accepted this year’s invitation in recognition of America’s 250th anniversary. Trump has appeared at the dinner before as a guest: in 2011 he attended as a celebrity while pressing then-President Barack Obama over his birth certificate and was roasted by Obama and comedian Seth Meyers. The last time he went to the event was 2015.
This year the association chose a mentalist instead of a traditional stand-up comic. The annual dinner traditionally pokes fun at the sitting president while acknowledging the friction between the press and the presidency. After years of calling the press “the enemy of the people,” Trump has agreed to participate.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed the president’s remarks, saying, “His speech will be very entertaining. That is what I will tell you. So everyone should tune in.” The dinner is intended as a celebration of a free, independent press. CBS senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang serves as this year’s president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Reporting from the White House: Taurean Small.