San Francisco Frontiers - Awkward debut for Trump at correspondents' dinner

The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), which organizes the annual meeting of the political press, opted not to go with a comedian host this year, as is tradition, but instead invited a mentalist and magician, Oz Pearlman.

Since his return to office last year, Trump's administration has taken a number of measures against the media, selectively restricting access for news outlets that have fallen afoul of his officials.

In a break with precedent, the White House now chooses which reporters are in the press "pool" that has rotating access to the president.

"The Press was extraordinarily bad to me," Trump said recently in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The WHCA inviting Trump this year, despite his repeated attacks on the media, has drawn backlash across newsrooms, and hundreds of journalists have signed an open letter asking attendees to call out Trump's press restrictions to his face at the event.

- 'Untouchable' -

Unlike all other presidents from the past 100 years, Trump has never attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner while in office -- until now.

But as opposed to the tradition of a comedian host "roasting" the commander in chief, this year's edition might see a bit of role reversal with Trump's attendance.

"My guess is that there is going to be some significant expression of grievances" by Trump, according to Robert Rowland, a communications professor at the University of Kansas.

"The other thing is that he does feel untouchable," he told AFP.

- 'Awkward and embarrassing' -

The "Nerd Prom" as attendees affectionately call it brings together hundreds of Washington journalists and media executives to raise funds for scholarships and awards.

And though the White House Correspondents' Dinner is presented as a celebration of America's press freedom, critics have lambasted the event as emblematic of US political journalism's insular, tight-knit nature.

"Even in the best of times, the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner is an awkward and ethically fraught affair," journalist Paul Farhi quipped in The Atlantic magazine, adding that this year's edition "figures to be even more awkward and embarrassing than usual."

Though it will be his first time attending as president, Trump has been a guest at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011.

Then-president Barack Obama infamously teased him relentlessly at the event, making fun of the former real estate developer's proliferation of the birtherism conspiracy theory that America's first Black president wasn't born in the country.

"Say what you want about Mr Trump, he would certainly bring some change to the White House," Obama said at the event, showing an image of the White House transformed into a Trump-branded hotel and casino.

And although the joke has played out with some truth -- with Trump's second term marked by high-profile renovations of the White House and beyond -- Trump's rise to power and his return to the White House Correspondents' Dinner as president 15 years later may show who ended up getting the last laugh after all.

Z.Phillips--SFF