One of the odder traditions of US politics is the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, a light-hearted affair where usually po-faced Washington journalists mix with federal government officials while a comedian pokes fun at the president. Every president since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 has attended at least once, bar one – Donald Trump in his first term.
Now the event has been stripped of its comedy after the snowflakes around King Donald insisted that the comic booked for this year’s event, Amber Ruffin, be dropped lest she upset the notoriously thin-skinned president. Ruffin, who has been dubbed “hate-filled” by White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, had promised not to tone down her regular attacks on Trump at the event, saying that if she did, people would think she had been “hurt or bodysnatched”.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which organises the event, said it was to ensure the event’s “focus is not on the politics of division” but was rather to honour the work of White House journalists. That’s despite saying just last month that Ruffin’s “unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate”.
As such, the event will lose its traditional comic turn. It’s difficult to know who comes out of this worst – the White House staff desperate to protect the world’s most powerful man from a mild ribbing, or the Washington press corps who immediately complied.
