--- title: Trump: Put White House Correspondents Dinner 'to Rest' description: Donald Trump called comedian Michelle Wolf "filthy" and suggested the annual White House Correspondents' Associated dinner be put "to rest" canonical: https://time.com/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/ author: Laignee Barron article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-30T05:17:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:15:20.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says Correspondents' Dinner Should Be 'Put To Rest' og:description: The President criticized Michelle Wolf's performance, calling her "filthy" og:url: https://time.com/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt648920af811709ee/69892f0dcf40a88ef3c4c136/rts1p4uy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says Correspondents' Dinner Should Be 'Put To Rest' twitter:description: The President criticized Michelle Wolf's performance, calling her "filthy" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt648920af811709ee/69892f0dcf40a88ef3c4c136/rts1p4uy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls for the White House Correspondents' Dinner to be 'Put to Rest' by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:15 PM UTCPublished: Apr 30, 2018 5:17 AM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan on April 28, 2018. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan on April 28, 2018.Joshua Roberts—Reuters by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:15 PM UTCPublished: Apr 30, 2018 5:17 AM UTC President Donald Trump has heaped more criticism on comedian Michelle Wolf for her[ divisive performance](http://time.com/5259016/comedians-defend-michelle-wolf/) at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, calling her “filthy” and suggesting the annual event be canceled. “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” the President tweeted on Sunday night. “The filthy ‘comedian’ totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” Trump made a reference to late-night host Seth Meyer’s 2011 performance at the dinner, in which the comedian roasted Trump. In her scathing, 20-minute address, Wolf ripped into the Trump administration and took particular aim at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She also threw barbs at Ivanka Trump, “as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons,” and Kellyanne Conway, “the perfect last name for what she does.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/990782291667488768) Trump tweeted about the dinner again Monday morning, calling it “a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for” \[sic\]. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/990926480329859073) The caustic routine earned criticism from many attendees and viewers, including journalists and lawmakers. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the event “disgusting.” In an earlier tweet, Trump [called](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/990557728752926725) the evening, “a very big, boring bust.” Wolf was [praised](http://time.com/5259016/comedians-defend-michelle-wolf/) for her performance by fellow comedians and writers, including _The Big Sick_‘s Kumail Nanjiani and _The New Yorker’_s Emily Nassbaum. But the White House Correspondents’ Association lamented the entertainer’s monologue. “Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people,” association president Margaret Talev said in a [statement](https://twitter.com/whca/status/990773612226412545) on Sunday. “Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.” > [](https://twitter.com/whca/status/990773612226412545) Trump has sat out both dinners held while he has been in office, a break from precedent. Since its founding in 1921, the joke-filled dinner [has hosted](http://time.com/4756751/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner/) every president at least once. “I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington swamp…with a much, much larger crowd,” [Trump said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-remarks-on-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner/2017/04/29/82e20696-2d38-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4%5Fvideo.html?utm%5Fterm=.a8a05648ede1) at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during last year’s dinner, according to the Washington _Post_. At the time, he said he might make 2018’s dinner “more exciting” by showing up. But he again skipped out in favor of another campaign-style rally, this time in Michigan, which he called “a big success.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls for the White House Correspondents' Dinner to be 'Put to Rest'","datePublished":"2018-04-30T05:17:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:15:20.000Z","description":"After the latest routine got personal about his press secretary, Trump called for ending the annual event","url":"https://time.com/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/","keywords":["White House","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt648920af811709ee/69892f0dcf40a88ef3c4c136/rts1p4uy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laignee Barron","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt648920af811709ee/69892f0dcf40a88ef3c4c136/rts1p4uy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan","creditText":"Joshua Roberts—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/5259271/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-put-to-rest/","name":"President Trump Calls for the White House Correspondents' Dinner to be 'Put to Rest'"}}]}] ```