President Joe Biden will attend the White House Correspondents’ dinner, according to organizers, after former President Donald Trump ended the traditional appearance.
“Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended the WHCA’s annual dinner … with just one exception,” WHCA president Steven Portnoy wrote on social media. “The tradition continues next Saturday night.”
The dinner is scheduled for April 30th, the first WHCA dinner held in two years, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Comedian Trevor Noah will be the featured speaker at this year’s dinner.
The last president to attend the dinner was former President Barack Obama in 2016.
File/ Vice-President Joe Biden attends the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner on April 30, 2016 at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, DC. This is President Obama’s eighth and final White House Correspondents’ Association dinner (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty)
U.S. singer Amanda Palmer arrives on the red carpet for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC on April 27, 2019. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump turned down invitations to the dinner, rallying with his supporters instead.
“There’s no place I’d rather be than right here in America’s heartland,” Trump said at a Wisconsin rally in 2019, while skipping the dinner for the third time.
“Fake news — they’re fake. They are fake, and they are fakers,” he added.
Trump allowed staff to attend the dinner in 2018, but it went sour after comedian Michelle Wolf trashed prominent women in the administration, including Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.