Donald Trump accepts Correspondents’ Dinner invitation, declaring himself 'one of the greatest presidents’

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an event he boycotted throughout his entire first term and in the first year of his second term, while regularly dismissing the press as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.” It would mark his first appearance at the dinner as a sitting president.

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In an evening Truth Social post, Trump framed the invitation as a form of vindication. He noted that the dinner dates to 1924 under President Calvin Coolidge, and invoked the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday before declaring that correspondents now “admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many.” He pledged to make the evening the "GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!"

The Advocate reached out to WHCA President Weijia Jiang, CBS News's White House correspondent, to confirm whether Trump had formally been designated an honoree and to ask whether the association agrees with his characterization that correspondents now regard him as one of the greatest presidents in American history. Jiang did not respond. Former WHCA President Eugene Daniels, whose term ended last year and who now cohosts The Weekend on MS NOW, also did not respond to a request for comment.

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The announcement arrives amid one of the most contentious stretches in recent memory between the White House and the press corps. Last year, the Trump administration moved to wrest control of the presidential press pool from the WHCA — the small rotating group of reporters who travel with and closely cover the president — shifting authority away from the association that has historically managed it. The White House also invited right-wing influencers into the briefing room, reshaping who has access to the president on a daily basis.

The administration removed the Associated Press from the press pool after the outlet declined to adopt the government's preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. A federal judge later ruled the move unconstitutional, finding that the White House could not bar a news organization from pool access based on editorial decisions.

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The dinner itself has also been the subject of controversy. Historically, comedians have hosted the glitzy affair that poked fun at the powerful in Washington, D.C. In 2025, during Daniels’s presidency of the WHCA, the board initially announced queer comedian Amber Ruffin as the featured entertainer in February. In March, as the April date approached, the board announced that it had voted to cancel her appearance and proceeded without a headlining comedian, saying it wanted to keep the focus on journalism rather than political division. Daniels faced backlash from some journalists and free expression advocates who argued that canceling Ruffin signaled institutional retreat at a time when the press was already under sustained attack.

That episode underscored the increasingly fraught role of the dinner, once a relatively predictable night of bipartisan satire, in an era defined by distrust between political power and the media institutions that cover it.

It was at the 2011 dinner that President Barack Obama roasted Trump from the podium while Trump sat in the audience, mocking his birther conspiracy theories and his record as host of The Apprentice. Comedian Seth Meyers piled on that same night. The evening has since become legend, and Trump has reportedly cited it as one of the experiences that motivated him to run for president.

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The April 25 dinner will be headlined by mentalist Oz Pearlman. In announcing the selection, Jiang said Pearlman would offer "a fascinating glimpse into what’s truly on the minds of Washington’s newsmakers,” promising an evening that is “exciting, fresh, and interactive.”

The WHCA, founded in 1914, uses proceeds from the annual dinner to fund journalism scholarships and awards.