April 30 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump skipped Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., and instead spoke to supporters at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa.
“I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp, spending my evening with all of you with a much, much larger crowd and much, much better people,” Trump told those gathered at the Pennsylvania Farm Show auditorium on the 100th day of his presidency. “The media deserves a very big, fat, failing grade.”
Trump — who frequently complains the reporters who cover him do so unfairly — is the first commander-in-chief in decades to miss the D.C. dinner, which honors excellence in journalism and celebrates freedom of speech. Ronald Reagan didn’t attend in 1981 because he was recovering from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt.
The gala is traditionally hosted by a comedian and includes a roast of the sitting president. The Daily Show star Hasan Minhaj was this year’s emcee and he didn’t hold back in mocking Trump and his administration.
“Only in America would a first-generation Muslim kid get on this stage and make fun of the President of America,” Minhaj said. “The orange man behind the Muslim ban. And it’s a sign to the rest of the world, it’s this amazing tradition that not even the president is beyond the reach of the first amendment. But the president didn’t show up. Because the man doesn’t care about free speech. The man who tweets everything that enters his head refuses to acknowledge the amendment that allows him to do it.”
“We are here to celebrate the press, not the presidency. And I am happy to report that this dinner is sold out,” said Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
He also emphasized, “We are not the enemy of the American people.”
