In 2011, Barack Obama spent the White House Correspondents’ Dinner mocking Donald Trump over birther conspiracy theories, all while finalizing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Trump sat in the audience, visibly seething. According to dinner lore, that was the night he decided to run for president.
Now, 15 years later, he’s coming back.
On Saturday, Trump will return to that same ballroom, this time with a very different plan. And, notably, he is reportedly planning to leave before the entertainment even begins.
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According to sources who spoke to The Daily Beast, Trump’s appearance at Saturday’s dinner will follow a precise script: deliver a prepared attack on the press, take a bow and exit the International Ballroom at the Washington Hilton before the evening’s program can turn on him.
He has told aides he does not plan to remain in the room when the Wall Street Journal receives the Katherine Graham award for its reporting on a letter Trump allegedly wrote for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday card.
The lawsuit Trump filed against the Journal over that reporting was tossed by a federal judge last week. The award ceremony will proceed regardless.
The WHCA has already taken precautions of its own.
Plans for 2026 call for a demonstration by mentalist Oz Pearlman instead of a comedian’s routine, a decision that effectively defangs the entertainment portion and removes the roast that has historically been the most dangerous part of the evening for Trump.
The organization has been navigating the tension between maintaining access and maintaining dignity for several years, and this year’s solution is a man who reads minds rather than a comedian who makes jokes. It is a reasonable precaution given the circumstances.
More than 200 journalists signed an open letter this week urging the WHCA to “forcefully demonstrate opposition” to Trump’s press freedom record at the dinner. Notable signatories include former CBS anchor Dan Rather, former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson and former NBC anchor Ann Curry.
The letter cited Trump’s Gulf of America feud with the Associated Press, the Pentagon’s crackdown on press access and his various lawsuit settlements with major networks.
So far, the WHCA has not said whether it will act on those demands.
As for Trump, he is framing things differently.
He told Fox News he skipped past dinners because “the press was so nasty” and said he had been treated “rather rudely and crudely.”
And when asked about that 2011 roast, he insisted: “I was actually, I loved it. I really loved it.”
The presidential campaign that followed suggested a slightly different emotional response.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
