The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner will no longer feature comedian Amber Ruffin as the headline performance, the group’s president told members in an email Saturday.
“[T]he WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels said.
“For the past couple of weeks, I have been planning a re-envisioning of our dinner tradition for this year,” Daniels added. “As the date nears, I will share more details of the plans in place to honor journalistic excellence and a robust, independent media covering the most powerful office in the world.”
The announcement about next month’s dinner comes after White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich blasted the association for featuring the anti-Trump comedian.
This year’s @whca dinner will be hosted by a 2nd rate comedian who is previewing the event by calling this administration “murderers” who want to “feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, because you’re not”
— Taylor Budowich (@Taylor47) March 29, 2025
What kind of responsible, sensible journalist… pic.twitter.com/tZCJS9fNOT
Budowich called the WHCA's announcement a "cop out."
No accountability at @WHCA, just a cop out statement—pathetic!
— Taylor Budowich (@Taylor47) March 29, 2025
Many WHCA members are privately pointing the finger at Eugene for making the unilateral decision to recruit and sign this garbage, hate-filled comedian. Yet, they are all turning a blind eye to it publicly. It’s an… https://t.co/GbHHg8yLOS