After Five-Year Boycott, Trump Says He’ll Attend This Year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner
President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, ending a five-year boycott of the annual media event.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had accepted the invitation from the White House Correspondents’ Association and pledged to make it the “GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
“The White House Correspondents Association has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner, a long and storied tradition since it began in 1924, under then President Calvin Coolidge,” Trump wrote. He added that 2026, marking America’s 250th anniversary, made this an especially meaningful time to participate.
Trump said he had previously declined to attend because of what he described as unfair treatment from much of the press.
“Because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me, FAKE NEWS ALL, right from the beginning of my First Term, I boycotted the event, and never went as Honoree,” he wrote. “However, I look forward to being with everyone this year. Hopefully, it will be something very Special.”
Trump skipped the dinner throughout his first term and during the first year of his second term, citing his often adversarial relationship with legacy media outlets. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which traditionally features speeches from the president and a comedian, has long been a flashpoint for political satire and media criticism.
CBS News senior White House correspondent and White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang welcomed the news of Trump’s attendance.
“For more than 100 years, the journalists of the White House Correspondents’ Association have enjoyed an evening with the president,” Jiang said. “We’re happy the president has accepted our invitation and look forward to hosting him.”
With Trump promising a headline-grabbing appearance, this year’s dinner is expected to draw heightened attention as tensions between the administration and the press remain a defining feature of the political landscape.