Washington: US President Donald Trump hinted Tuesday he may drop his boycott of the annual White Hou<\/b>
\nWashington: US President Donald Trump hinted Tuesday he may drop his boycott of the annual White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner because there\u2019ll be no comedian on the program.
\u201cSo-called comedian Michelle Wolf bombed so badly last year at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner that this year, for the first time in decades, they will have an author instead of a comedian. Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition! Maybe I will go?\u201d Trump tweeted.
Wolf delivered a controversial star turn at the latest dinner, mercilessly \u2014 some argued cruelly \u2014 sending up White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, who was seated on the dais with her.
The day after Wolf\u2019s searing monologue, the then president of the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association, Margaret Talev, said the comedian\u2019s efforts were \u201cnot in the spirit of the mission\u201d of celebrating a free press and \u201chonoring civility.\u201d
And the April 27,2019 event will break with the tradition of featuring a comedian, with the guest speech instead coming from historian and biographer Ron Chernow, who is best known for his biographies of Alexander Hamilton and two former US presidents.
Wolf responded to Trump by pointing to his decision this week to ignore evidence of involvement by US ally and de facto Saudi leader Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
\u201cI bet you\u2019d be on my side if I\u2019d killed a journalist,\u201d Wolf said.
The annual gala dates back to 1921, and from 1980 until 2017, presidents from both parties had attended, except for 1981, when president Ronald Reagan was recovering from being shot.
Presidents usually give a speech filled with self-deprecating comments and jabs at the press, after a comedian has taken aim at the commander-in-chief.
While Trump has not gone to the event since taking office, he did attend as a guest in 2011, when he was subjected to a blistering roast by then-president Barack Obama, who mocked the reality TV star for peddling the conspiracy theory that the Hawaii-born leader lacked a valid US birth certificate.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 39<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -1.4<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 2<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 0<\/div>\n

TW likes: 0<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n