Donald Trump shocks reporters, first President to do this in 36 years

Donald Trump shocks reporters, first President to do this in 36 years

Ball

Donald Trump has decided not to attend the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on April 29, 2017. He sent this message via Tweet (like he always does) and wished everyone else to have a great evening.

This comes shortly after he banned certain media companies from entering a briefing of his, including two outlets that he disliked or considered fake news, such as BuzzFeed, The New York Times, CNN, and Politico.

I suppose Trump doesn’t care to be surrounded by veteran or aspiring journalists. Makes sense considering he keeps calling them out on their inaccurate and misleading reporting and lust for publishing fake news to the readers.

This hasn’t been done in at least 36 years. I believe the last President to skip the dinner was Ronald Reagan who was recovering from a gunshot he received in an assassination attempt. Before that was Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon who said the press is your enemy.

Jeff Mason, President of the WHCA, posted a statement on Twitter as well.

Trump’s decision comes after CNN, The New York Times, Politico and several other major media outlets were blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing. The president also continued to express his dislike for “fake news” media and targeted reporters’ use of anonymous sources while speaking to the Conservative Political Action Committee on Friday.

White House Correspondents’ Association president Jeff Mason said in a statement that the group has noted Trump’s announcement and is still looking forward to the April 29 dinner, “which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic.

“We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession,” the statement concludes.

Even though Donald Trump dislikes the dishonest media, it would be nice for the President to be at the dinner. I think this is rather childish of him to skip this and not face his enemies. He has to realize that not every journalist in attendance is fake news, so he’s taking away a fun opportunity for those folks to be in attendance with the POTUS. And let’s not forget where Trump shines the best – he’s wicked when he faces his enemies in person. Trump is very funny when he calls out the journalists for their fake reporting, so this would be another opportunity for him to toss a few one-liners into the wind and snag tons of free press.

I think he should go. What do you think?

Frank Lea

Controversial and thought provoking. Find me at Trending Views and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

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