President Trump said Friday that he will be skipping the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, telling reporters as he departed the White House en route to California that he would rather hold a rally instead.
“Yeah, because the dinner is so boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally instead,” Trump explained. He said the location of the rally has not yet been determined, but it has been narrowed down to three sites. “Everybody wants it,” he said. “It will be a big one.”
The president had previously hinted that he was open to attending this year’s dinner after organizers changed the format to allow Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow to speak rather than the usual insult comic.
“So-called comedian Michelle Wolf bombed so badly last year at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that this year, for the first time in decades, they will have an author instead of a comedian,” he wrote in a tweet last November. “Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition!” he added. “Maybe I will go?”
In the end, the president decided against it.
“The correspondence dinner is too negative,” Trump told the reporters outside the White House. “I like positive things!”
This will be the third year in a row that the president has has skipped the WHCD, which is also known as the “nerd prom.”
President Trump reveals he'll hold a rally instead of attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner, calling the event "so boring and so negative."pic.twitter.com/eNkI8kRF8c
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) April 5, 2019