President Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this Saturday for the first time as president. The annual celebration of press freedom, a fixture on Washington's spring social calendar, will see Trump surrounded by the journalists he routinely berates, threatens, and denounces as fake news. While all other presidents since the event's inception have attended at some point, Trump's expected presence has brought renewed scrutiny to the gathering.
This year's event will be hosted by mentalist Oz Pearlman and will not feature a comedian. The atmosphere remains tense as professional organizations have called on attendees to speak forcefully during the dinner.
The event comes amid ongoing legal battles, with FBI Director Kash Patel currently fighting The Atlantic in court over a scathing magazine profile. Trump's history with the dinner also includes 2011, when then-president Barack Obama infamously teased him relentlessly.