Trevor Noah Will Headline First Biden-Era White House Correspondents' Dinner
After Donald Trump called journalists and media outlets the “enemy of the people” and boycotted every White House Correspondents’ Association dinner during his presidency, the event is going back to basics. Daily Show host Trevor Noah will headline the first WHCA dinner in two years on April 30. It’s expected to be the first with the commander in chief present since 2016.
“Trevor is an incredible talent who keeps us laughing—and thinking—four nights a week,” said a statement from Steven Portnoy, the association president and a reporter for CBS News Radio, via the Associated Press. “We can’t wait for him to help bring our 100-year Washington tradition ‘Back to Abnormal’”—a reference to Noah’s current comedy tour.
The comedian is a natural fit for the correspondents’ dinner, as the last two emcees—Hasan Minhaj in 2017 and Michelle Wolf in 2018—are Daily Show alumni. Noah is the first comedian to take the WHCA dais since Wolf’s jokes about then press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparked controversy. The following year the WHCA opted to forego any comic-related backlash, tapping biographer Ron Chernow, whose book inspired Hamilton, to speak at the event. The dinner was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-related concerns.
While Trump skipped the dinner every year, President Joe Biden is expected to make an appearance at the 2022 event. The association said in a press release that this year’s correspondents’ dinner, which intermingles journalists, politicians, and celebrities, will “offer the first opportunity since 2016 for the press and the president to share a few laughs for a good cause.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/trevor-noah-will-headline-first-biden-era-white-house-correspondents-dinner
