Associated Press
- The White House is ordering all staff to boycott the 2019 annual White House Correspondents Dinner on April 27 as President Donald Trump escalates his jabs at the media, according to a new report in CNN.
- Trump himself will be forgoing the dinner for the third year in a row, instead choosing to hold a political rally in Wisconsin.
- Without Trump present, the keynote speaker at this years’ White House Correspondent’s Dinner will be historian and author Ron Chernow instead of a comedian.
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The White House is ordering all staff to boycott the 2019 annual White House Correspondents Dinner on April 27 as President Donald Trump escalates his jabs at the media, according to a new report in CNN.
A senior administration official told CNN that on Tuesday, White House Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley instructed staffers to boycott this year’s dinner.
Trump himself will be forgoing the dinner for the third year in a row and will instead hold a political rally in Wisconsin.
"The dinner is so boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally," Trump told reporters earlier this month.
In 2018, Trump’s anger at the event reached a fever pitch over comedian Michelle Wolf’s pointed jabs at Trump and several other White House officials, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sanders, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from INSIDER, said she also plans to skip the event and travel to Wisconsin with Trump. All White House staff also skipped the 2017 edition of the dinner.
Without Trump present, the keynote speaker at this years’ White House Correspondent’s Dinner will be historian and author Ron Chernow instead of the typical comedian, a signal of the changing relationship between the White House and the press.
As CNN noted, the dinner has historically been not only a fundraiser for free press causes, but a rare annual occasion for the press and the President to relax and poke some fun at each other.
"We’re looking forward to an enjoyable evening of celebrating the First Amendment and great journalists past, present, and future," White House Correspondents Association president Olivier Knox told CNN.
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Source: Business Insider – gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)