Trump says he’ll attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner...

“Because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me, FAKE NEWS ALL, right from the beginning of my First Term, I boycotted the event, and never went as Honoree,” Trump said. “However, I look forward to being with everyone this year. Hopefully, it will be something very Special.” Attendance at the April 25 dinner would present the president with an opportunity to further wage battle against the White House press corps. Since he returned to office, the Trump administration sought to ban the Associated Press from covering events at the White House, filed lawsuits against multiple media outlets he views as covering him unfavorably, pushed for funding cuts to public media, revoked press credentials for journalists covering the Pentagon, and used the Federal Communications Commission to exert pressure on media companies. The announcement appears to indicate a détente between the WHCA and the White House, which has made a series of moves to unilaterally exert control of which reporters cover the administration that have been strongly condemned by the correspondents’ association. In a statement, WHCA president and CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang said the group is “happy the president has accepted our invitation and look forward to hosting him.” Last month, WHCA announced that Oz Pearlman, the mentalist, will be the headline entertainer at the dinner. Historically, the dinner has featured comedian-hosts making jokes at the president’s expense. But the WHCA eschewed that tradition last year, canceling the appearance of comedian Amber Ruffin following criticism from the White House. In 2019, when Trump was in his first term, historian Ron Chernow hosted the event. April’s dinner won’t be the first time Trump has attended the event — before running for president, Trump attended the 2011 edition of the dinner, where then-President Barack Obama repeatedly jabbed at Trump, who was heightening false conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth certificate at the time.