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President Donald Trump is set to attend his first White House Correspondents’ Dinner as commander in chief this weekend, drawing backlash from more than 200 journalists, journalism organizations and press freedom groups.
In an open letter, the coalition urged the event’s organizer, the White House Correspondents Association, to use the dinner to defend press freedom amid ongoing threats to the First Amendment, many of which are being led by the administration. While some participants have pledged to wear pins on their gowns or lapels in subtle protest, a group of journalists is calling on the association to go a step further and directly condemn the president for dozens of actions they say are intended to undermine the country’s press freedoms.
“We, the undersigned, urge the White House Correspondents’ Association to use the opportunity of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to strongly demonstrate our opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample on press freedom,” the April 20 letter said.
“Please speak out forcefully in the face of a man who seeks to undermine our country’s long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press,” the letter added.
Signatories include some of the nation’s largest journalism and press freedom organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Coalition for Women in Journalism. Several prominent journalists also signed the letter, including former “Today” show co-host Ann Curry and longtime CBS news anchor Dan Rather.
“There is a long tradition of presidents attending White House Correspondents’ Association dinners,” the latter added. “But these are not normal times, and there is no way it can be normal for reporters to stand up and praise a man who attacks them every day.”
The group called on the White House Correspondents Association, which has hosted the glitzy event in Washington, D.C., for decades, to “stop normalizing this behavior” and “fight back” by the administration.
The letter specifically condemned the Trump administration for dozens of actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January 2024, calling it “the most systematic and comprehensive attack on press freedom by a sitting American president.”
They point to the administration’s slew of lawsuits against media organizations and journalists, defunding of public broadcasters, bans on access to news organizations, including the temporary banning of the Associated Press from the White House and the virtual dismantling of the Pentagon press corps, and regulatory investigations into media organizations, including those launched and threatened by the Federal Communications Commission.
The dinner, dubbed “Geek Prom” by Washington observers, raises money to support the White House Correspondents Association’s First Amendment Scholarship and programs that promote it. It typically features a number of prominent figures from the media and political world, and has been a staple of Washington, D.C.’s political scene since its inception more than 100 years ago.
During President Trump’s first term, he became the first president in more than 30 years to miss a dinner party. President Calvin Coolidge started the tradition of presidential appearances and annual speeches at the event when he attended the event in 1924.
However, the banquet has long been criticized by journalists, who have taken issue with the friendly atmosphere that has developed between the power brokers and reporters who spend their days reporting on it.
The letter called the dinner “a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy” and said President Trump’s attacks on press freedom “make his presence at such an event gravely inconsistent with that purpose.”
In recent years, the association has chosen a manga artist as the host, and the president has taken on the challenge of performing his own jokes in front of a lively audience. This year, The Mentalist Oz Perlman will be hosting the dinner instead of comedians like Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah.
Trump attended the annual event before taking office in the White House. His most notable appearance came in 2011, when he came under fire from former President Barack Obama over his support for the “birther” conspiracy that questioned Obama’s U.S. citizenship.
Contributor: James Powell, USA TODAY
Kathryn Palmer is USA TODAY’s political reporter. She can be reached at the following address: kapalmer@usatoday.com And to X@Kathryn Purml. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
