Trump Will Skip White House Correspondents Dinner For 2nd Year In A Row

Donald Trump

For the second year in a row, Donald Trump will skip the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.

The long-standing event, begun in 1921, serves to celebrate the First Amendment, fund scholarships for gifted students in college journalism programs and honor excellence in journalism.

"I sort of feel like the press so bad, it’s so fake, it’s so made up," Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York Friday morning. “So I just think I want to get it straightened out with the press before I do it."

The dinner has been attended annually by every president for 37 years. The last president to miss the event was Ronald Reagan, who was, understandably, recovering from an assassination attempt in 1981.

The fact is a regular ritual of the dinner is the president standing making several minutes of remarks in jest.

Many say the Trumpster is afraid he would bomb in the humor department. He also, apparently, does not care to spend an evening with those he vilifies on a regular basis on Twitter.

Statement on President and WHCA Dinner pic.twitter.com/WiemgnIvcq

— WHCA (@whca) April 6, 2018

POTUS will not be there when reporters who have broken accurate stories that he falsely called “fake news” — including @maggieNYT @jdawsey1 @jimsciutto @evanperez and @carlbernstein — are honored with @WHCA awards. https://t.co/5TMo1bjOjH

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 6, 2018

Trump announced he won't be going to the White House Correspondents Dinner, which I'm fine with.

But I do find it amusing that the guy who says he'd rush into an active shooting scene unarmed is scared of Journalists and Comedians making fun of him.

— Deon (@imnottayediggs) April 6, 2018

The White House Correspondents Dinner should invite @BarackObama to speak. Everyone could use an encore. pic.twitter.com/AvCnQGoaut

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 6, 2018

I will NOT be attending the White House Correspondents Dinner as this is no time for JOKING about hush money to porn stars, rampant government corruption, secret meetings with Russians and "Nosey Bob" Mueller's so-called "Investigation." These are NO LAUGHING MATTERS!

— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) April 6, 2018