The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is set to take place in April and one comedian hopes President Donald Trump will not attend.
Amber Ruffin will be headlining the annual event being held this year at the Washington Hilton and while she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump would be “missing out” if he declines to attend, she bluntly said she hopes he doesn’t.
“So US presidents traditionally attend this dinner. However, Donald Trump never went to it during his first term in office. Do you want him to be there this year?” Tapper asked on “The:Lead” Wednesday.
Comedian Amber Ruffin previews her WHCD roast
Watch the full video here: https://t.co/EllFsNfhkR pic.twitter.com/d7xPSlIkLB— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 5, 2025
“No. Don’t anybody want to know…,” Ruffin replied.
“No one wants that. Sure, it’s something to do. But, I can’t imagine he would. I can’t imagine he would,” the “Late Show with Seth Meyers” writer added.
“He should,” she continued. “He’s missing out on one of the cool things about being the President of the United States, but I don’t know that anyone’s looking forward to being in the same room as him.”
Trump opted out of attending the event during his first term in office and has not indicated if he will break with that record to subject himself to the traditional insults at the celebrity-filled bash.
Ruffin once called Trump “a toddler with his pants pulled down,” as one reporter reminded White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt when asking about Trump’s plans this year.
“I have the president’s invitation on my desk,” Leavitt replied Tuesday. “Haven’t talked to the president about it.”
“When he makes his decision, I will let you all know,” she added. “But definitely an interesting choice of a comedian. I’ll talk to the boss and see what we decide.”
Back in 2011, late-night host Seth Meyers headlined the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and targeted Trump in what many thought was what fueled the real estate and reality TV star to run for president.
“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising because I just assumed he was running as a joke,” Meyers said at the time.
In discussing that event, Ruffin joked that Meyers “got us into this mess.”
“It is his fault. If you’re looking for somebody to blame, blame my boss,” she told Tapper. “He did what he had to do. It cannot be your job to razz people, and then this man comes alone and is like ‘I’m going to be president.’ You have to laugh. Ultimately, the joke’s on us, isn’t it?”
