US President Donald Trump has broken with tradition and has tweeted that he will not be attending the annual dinner organized by the White House Correspondents Association. The dinner is an annual ritual since 1920. This time it is scheduled to be held on 29 April at the Hinckley Hilton. Before Donald tweeted his inability to attend, many high-profile news organizations like Bloomberg and New York times had indicated that they would not attend. One wonders whether the withdrawal of these organizations had an effect on Donald's decision. The President tweeted that he would not be attending the dinner and wished everyone well.
Annual dinner
The dinner is held every year, and invariably the president always attends. The last time a president did not attend was in 1981 when Ronald Reagon was incapacitated from attending after being shot. Earlier Richard Nixon had not attended, but he had a running feud with the press.
This time Donald is known to have strained relations with the media. The president has frequently lambasted the press for dishing out "fake news." Trump had also banned CNN, The New York times, The Los Angeles Times, Politico and Buzzfeed from a private White House briefing by press secretary Shaun Spicer. This discrimination led to widespread outrage, yet the White House did not change its preferences.
Shaun Spicer made a point that the White House was more accessible than before. He justified it by pointing out that for the first time there were " Skype seats" for journalists who for any reason could not be physically present.
Future
The dinner will now be held without the president on 29 April. In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, the president stated that he was "not against the media", but "only the fake news media or the press." He went on to state that the media didn't think he would win but he proved them all wrong.
Donald is also incensed with the coverage of supposed Russian hacking of the US election. Donald has another four years to go, and it will be interesting to watch how his relationship with the press irons out in future.
