Media

Colbert says he won’t attend correspondents’ dinner, asks why ‘many others will’

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by Tolu Talabi - 04/24/26 12:41 PM ET

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by Tolu Talabi - 04/24/26 12:41 PM ET

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Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’s “The Late Show,” is opting out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday.

“Folks, I try to remember not to be in Washington, D.C., as often as possible. But there is certainly no time I am there less than the weekend of the White House correspondents’ dinner, which is why this Saturday, I will again not be,” Colbert said Thursday. “But, and it’s a big but … but for reasons that are not clear to me, many others will.”

This weekend, President Trump will attend the dinner for the first time while in the Oval Office. The event at the Washington Hilton hotel dates to 1921 and supports the White House Correspondents’ Association‘s (WHCA) journalism scholarships. It typically includes punchy remarks from the president, followed by an entertainer.

Mentalist Oz Pearlman will serve as the entertainer for this year’s dinner.

After bucking tradition during his first term and boycotting the dinner last year, Trump announced in March that he would attend. First lady Melania Trump is expected to join him.

“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!” the president wrote last month on Truth Social.

Colbert, who was the featured entertainer in 2006, described the event’s atmosphere as one that is “lighthearted” and a night that brings the press and politicians together.

“And, in my personal experience, stare in dead-eyed silence at the performer while the president mentally orders a hit by SEAL Team 6,” he said.

He suggested that the president is “planning to attack the press and target publications he has accused of writing negatively about his administration.”

Hundreds of journalists signed an open letter in April, urging their colleagues to use the occasion to forcefully demonstrate their opposition to Trump’s efforts to trample the freedom of the press.

Weijia Jiang, the WHCA president and a CBS News senior White House correspondent, said the dinner “reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy,” in a statement to The Hill.

“As we mark America’s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure,” she continued. “Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”

Trump’s criticism of Colbert increased last summer after CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show” in 2026 — which sparked backlash from the comedian, a slew of Democrats and other late-night hosts.

The president celebrated the move and has frequently praised the company, which is owned by Paramount Skydance, and he has frequently praised CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.

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