--- title: White House Correspondent's Dinner: Trump Staff Won't Attend description: No members of the White House staff will attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner as an act of solidarity with President Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-29T00:47:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:04:58.070Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Staff Won't Attend Correspondents' Dinner Out of 'Solidarity' og:description: Staffers have elected not to attend as an act of "solidarity" with President Donald Trump og:url: https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0712d40d2026db/6988b7c1196cf4148803ea7f/donald-trump-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump signs a memorandum to security services directing them to defeat the Islamic State in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Staff Won't Attend Correspondents' Dinner Out of 'Solidarity' twitter:description: Staffers have elected not to attend as an act of "solidarity" with President Donald Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0712d40d2026db/6988b7c1196cf4148803ea7f/donald-trump-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Staff Won't Attend Correspondents' Dinner Out of 'Solidarity' With President Trump by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 29, 2017 12:47 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump signs a memorandum to security services directing them to defeat the Islamic State in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 28, 2017\. Pictured with him are White House senior advisor Steve Bannon (L-R), National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Vice President Mike Pence, Deputy National Security Advisor K. T. McFarland, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, National Security Council Chief of Staff Keith Kellogg and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSXTZB U.S. President Donald Trump signs a memorandum to security services directing them to defeat the Islamic State in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 28, 2017\. Pictured with him are White House senior advisor Steve Bannon (L-R), National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Vice President Mike Pence, Deputy National Security Advisor K. T. McFarland, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, National Security Council Chief of Staff Keith Kellogg and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSXTZBJonathan Ernst—Reuters by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 29, 2017 12:47 AM UTC No members of the [White House staff](http://time.com/4695778/international-womens-day-strike-white-house/) will attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner as an act of solidarity with [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4715898/koch-tax-reform-healthcare-gorsuch/). The president [announced his decision not to attend the annual event](http://time.com/4683002/president-trump-skip-white-house-correspondents-dinner/), which is set for April 29, [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/835608648625836032) in February. The White House informed the White House Correspondents’ Association of the staff’s decision on Tuesday night. “The WHCA board regrets this decision very much. We have worked hard to build a constructive relationship with the Trump White House and believe strongly that this goal is possible even with the natural tension between the press and administrations that is a hallmark of a healthy republic,” Jeff Mason, WHCA president and White House correspondent for Reuters wrote in a letter. “We made clear in our meeting tonight that President Trump, Vice President Pence, and White House staff continue to be welcome to join us at this dinner,” Mason added. > [](https://twitter.com/Hadas%5FGold/status/846866542931431425) Mason in his letter said that the dinner would go on as planned on April 29 to “celebrate the First Amendment” and award scholarships to students who “represent the next generation of our profession.” The White House Correspondents’ Dinner began in 1921 and since 1924 has been attended by the sitting president every year with the exception of 1978, when Jimmy Carter declined, citing exhaustion, and 1981, when Ronald Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt — though he still managed to deliver remarks over the phone from Camp David. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/"},"headline":"White House Staff Won't Attend Correspondents' Dinner Out of 'Solidarity' With President Trump","datePublished":"2017-03-29T00:47:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:04:58.070Z","description":"The White House Correspondents’ Association is not happy with the decision","url":"https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0712d40d2026db/6988b7c1196cf4148803ea7f/donald-trump-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0712d40d2026db/6988b7c1196cf4148803ea7f/donald-trump-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump signs a memorandum to security services directing them to defeat the Islamic State in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington","caption":"Trump signs a memorandum to security services directing them to defeat the Islamic State in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Jonathan Ernst—Reuters","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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4716084/white-house-staff-correspondents-dinner-donald-trump/","name":"White House Staff Won't Attend Correspondents' Dinner Out of 'Solidarity' With President Trump"}}]}] ```