President Donald Trump will attend next month’s tony Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, putting the President in the same room with many of the county’s top journalists he has castigated in his first year in office.
Trump opted not to attend last year’s invite only white-tie dinner where dozens of Washington’s top journalists dine and perform comedic musical numbers. The annual dinner typically includes both journalists and politicians and features jokes about both sides of the aisle.
“We are pleased to announce that President Donald J. Trump will attend the Gridiron Club’s 133rd Anniversary Spring Dinner on March 3,” the club announced on Monday. “Since its founding in 1885, the Gridiron Club has had a standing invitation to the President of the United States to attend our annual dinner, and President Trump is continuing a tradition dating back to our start.”
Trump has maintained a hostile relationship with reporters for much of his first year in office, regularly criticizing the media in direct and personal terms. He has made the term “Fake News” ubiquitous and told his millions of followers on Twitter that reporters are “truly bad people.”
Trump has skipped many of the long standing after-business-hours engagements between the Washington press corps and the commander-in-chief. Amid increasingly hostile relations Trump declined to attend the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” he tweeted.
He was the first president since 1981 to miss the dinner.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.