Trump To Attend White House Correspondents’ Dinner As President For The First Time

President Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner for the first time while serving as president, putting him face-to-face with the reporters he frequently criticizes.

Event, Entertainment And Context

This year’s gala, which raises funds for the correspondents’ association and journalism scholarships, booked mentalist Oz Pearlman as the evening’s entertainer. The association did not feature a comedian last year, instead focusing on journalism awards.

Political And Economic Backdrop

The dinner arrives amid heightened tensions with Iran, rising global gasoline prices and market volatility. It also follows a recent NBC News poll showing 37% of respondents approve of Trump’s job performance and 63% disapprove. The poll found particularly high disapproval for his handling of inflation (68%) and the Iran conflict (67%).

Press Relations And Legal Battles

Trump’s attendance comes as his administration’s relationship with mainstream news organizations has become increasingly adversarial. Notable disputes and legal actions cited include:

• The Associated Press: After the AP declined a White House request to relabel the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” the administration restricted AP access to major presidential events; the agency sued, and a U.S. appeals court in June 2025 allowed the president to exclude the AP from some events while the case proceeded.
• The New York Times: Trump filed a $15 billion defamation suit over the paper’s coverage of his 2024 campaign; a federal judge dismissed the case in September and Trump later refiled it.
• The Wall Street Journal: A judge recently tossed a $10 billion suit Trump brought over the publication of a lewd 50th-birthday card allegedly linked to Jeffrey Epstein; Trump denies writing the note. Reporters who worked on that Journal story are scheduled to receive an award the night of the dinner.

Broader Media Tensions

The administration’s strained relationship with the press extends beyond headline lawsuits. This month, FBI Director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic over reporting that he denies. In January, FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home and seized electronic devices in an investigation; a judge later blocked the Department of Justice from using material recovered from those devices in its prosecution. In March, the Defense Department removed media offices from the Pentagon after a federal judge sided with The New York Times in a challenge to new reporting restrictions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly called U.S. media “incredibly unpatriotic.”

Criticism And Support

Hundreds of reporters and guests typically attend the correspondents’ dinner, but Trump's presence prompted criticism from a coalition of journalism groups and veteran reporters, including Dan Rather and Jim Acosta. They urged the White House Correspondents’ Association to publicly oppose actions they see as threats to press freedom. The association’s president, Weijia Jiang, responded that the dinner celebrates the First Amendment and supports awards and scholarships for journalists.

Trump’s decision to attend appears to have encouraged allies to accept invitations as well. Taylor Budowich, a longtime Trump adviser and former White House deputy chief of staff, said he plans to attend alongside representatives of The Associated Press, quipping he’ll do so “as a fan of irony.”

Historic Note

Although this will be Trump's first attendance as president, he has been in the room before: in 2011, then-President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers mocked a stone-faced Trump over his focus on Obama’s long-form birth certificate—an episode often cited as symbolic in Trump’s political evolution.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.