--- title: White House Correspondents Dinner: Notables Pan Donald Trump description: Celebrities talk Trump at the annual People/TIME party. canonical: https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-30T02:09:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:41.682Z article:section: Politics og:title: Celebrities Pan Trump Before White House Correspondents Dinner og:description: They said he brought reality TV to politics. og:url: https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bf89026b8a06215/69889148f887dcebd7e95aba/gettyimages-526213186.jpg?branch=production&width=396&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 396 og:image:height: 223 og:image:alt: Actress Vivica Fox attends the Google/HBO celebration of "All The Way" during White House Correspondents' weekend at the Renwick Gallery on April 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Celebrities Pan Trump Before White House Correspondents Dinner twitter:description: They said he brought reality TV to politics. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bf89026b8a06215/69889148f887dcebd7e95aba/gettyimages-526213186.jpg?branch=production&width=396&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Celebrities Pan Trump Before White House Correspondents Dinner > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump on the Attack [Watch (HLS stream): Trump on the Attack](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VeRjnf0d.m3u8) (2:00)  _Published 2016-04-25. Donald Trump seemed clearly rankled Monday by the decision of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to team up against him, spending much of the beginning of his rally in Rhode Island bashing his opponents rather than promoting himself._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 30, 2016 2:09 AM UTC  Actress Vivica Fox attends the Google/HBO celebration of "All The Way" during White House Correspondents' weekend at the Renwick Gallery on April 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Actress Vivica Fox attends the Google/HBO celebration of "All The Way" during White House Correspondents' weekend at the Renwick Gallery on April 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Paul Morigi—2016 Paul Morigi by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 30, 2016 2:09 AM UTC On the eve of the White House Correspondents Association dinner, many celebrities thought that the 2016 election had taken a turn for the dramatic with the rise of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Michael Kelly, who plays Doug Stamper on the popular Netflix drama _House of Cards_, said that the election mirrors some of the plot lines that show’s writers cooked up more than a year ago. “It’s certainly crazier things in this election than anything that I’ve ever seen in _House of Cards_. Look at the parallel story at what could possibly be the contested convention, that’s insane,” Kelly told TIME. “When we wrote that a year ago, did I really think that would come to life? Never in a million years.” Trump, the real estate mogul currently in first place for the GOP nomination, is expected to be the butt of many of comedian Larry Wilmore’s jokes at Saturday’s dinner. Vivica A. Fox, star of the upcoming film _Independence Day: Resurgence_, told TIME that the Trump we see on the presidential trail was nothing like the person she met during her time on _Celebrity Apprentice 7_ and that he had “turned politics into a reality show.” Another former member of _The Apprentice_ cast, Omarosa Manigault, wasn’t quite so pleased that so many of Wilmore’s jokes would come at Trump’s expense Saturday. “I think there’s going to be a lot of jokes about Trump,” Manigault told TIME. “But I think the biggest joke is on them because he’s going to be the President of the United States.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Celebrities Pan Trump Before White House Correspondents Dinner","datePublished":"2016-04-30T02:09:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:41.682Z","description":"'It's certainly crazier things in this election than anything that I've ever seen in House of Cards'","url":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","celebrities","White House","house of cards","White House Correspondents Dinner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bf89026b8a06215/69889148f887dcebd7e95aba/gettyimages-526213186.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bf89026b8a06215/69889148f887dcebd7e95aba/gettyimages-526213186.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actress Vivica Fox attends the Google/HBO celebration of \"All The Way\" during White House Correspondents' weekend at the Renwick Gallery on April 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C.","caption":"Actress Vivica Fox attends the Google/HBO celebration of \"All The Way\" during White House Correspondents' weekend at the Renwick Gallery on April 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C.","creditText":"Paul Morigi—2016 Paul Morigi","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/","name":"Celebrities Pan Trump Before White House Correspondents Dinner"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump on the Attack","description":"Donald Trump seemed clearly rankled Monday by the decision of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to team up against him, spending much of the beginning of his rally in Rhode Island bashing his opponents rather than promoting himself.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VeRjnf0d/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-25T18:53:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VeRjnf0d.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/","duration":"PT2M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4313312/white-house-correspondents-dinner-celebrities-donald-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```