The president tweeted his announcement on Saturday. 
 
 Donald Trump will be skipping the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 29. 
 
 "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!" Trump tweeted on Saturday afternoon. 
 
 I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017 
 
 Trump's decision comes after CNN, The New York Times, Politico and several other major media outlets were blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing. The president also continued to express his dislike for "fake news" media and targeted reporters' use of anonymous sources while speaking to the Conservative Political Action Committee on Friday. 
 
 White House Correspondents' Association president Jeff Mason said in a statement that the group has noted Trump's announcement and is still looking forward to the April 29 dinner, "which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic. 
 
 "We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession," the statement concludes. 
 
 WHCA statement on 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner pic.twitter.com/mMOXaozwHj — Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) February 25, 2017 
 
 Bloomberg recently canceled their annual party in celebration of the dinner. The business outlet usually co-hosts the event with Conde Nast's Vanity Fair, but the magazine pulled out earlier this month. The New Yorker also canceled its event that evening. 
 
 Sources previously told THR the casts of House of Cards, Veep and Scandal will also likely not be in attendance, though they were present at the event during the Obama years. 
 
 The same evening as the dinner, TBS' Samantha Bee is planning her own event, a "Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner" at the Willard Hotel in the nation's capital, raising funds to support the Committee to Protect Journalists. 
 
 A host has yet to be named for the Correspondents' dinner. Stephen Colbert, however, said he would be "honored" to take the stage, and Trevor Noah told THR he would be up for the job if asked. 
 
 Trump's decision is historical as it's been a longtime tradition that the president make an appearance at the dinner. He will be the first president to skip the dinner since Ronald Reagan in 1981, who missed the dinner while recovering from an assassination attempt, but still delivered remarks over the phone. ||||| The annual custom of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner suddenly seems uncomfortable if not untenable: Journalists mingling with Trump administration aides who loathe them, celebrities decrying Trump White House policies, and an entertainment headliner grappling with the tone and boldness of jokes about President Trump himself. 
 
 But Samantha Bee is not waiting to see how this year’s soiree unfolds or if those involved decide to hold it at all. 
 
 Instead, Ms. Bee, host of the topical TBS comedy show “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” and her colleagues are planning a counter-event that will take place in Washington on April 29, the same night as the Correspondents’ Association dinner. 
 
 This alternative gala, which is being called “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” and was announced on Monday, will be at the Willard Hotel. Ms. Bee said that it was not an attempt to comment on or compete with that other, better-known banquet, but a night to include jokes about Mr. Trump that she and like-minded comedians want to make. ||||| President Trump announced Saturday he will not be attending this year's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, a break with past presidents. 
 
 "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!" Trump tweeted. 
 
 I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017 
 
 The president's announcement comes amid growing tensions between his administration and the media, with several news organizations including CNN saying they may not participate in this year's event at the Washington Hilton. 
 
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 The dinner honors journalists who cover the White House and awards scholarships to aspiring reporters. 
 
 The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which organizes the annual dinner, said in a statement the event will continue as planned on April 29 despite Trump's absence. 
 
 WHCA president Jeff Mason said the dinner "has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic." 
 
 "We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession," he added. 
 
 The WHCA typically invites the president and members of his staff. A comedian is brought in to roast the commander in chief, who then delivers lighthearted remarks. 
 
 Trump attended the dinner in 2011, where he was repeatedly mocked and teased by then-President Obama. Trump chose to skip the dinner during the 2016 presidential campaign, despite receiving a number of invites from the media. 
 
 Many have speculated that Trump's appearance at the 2011 dinner fueled his desire to enter the political arena. 
 
 Trump for months had cast doubt on the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate in an effort to question whether he was eligible to occupy the Oval Office. After Obama released the certificate, he mocked Trump at length during his speech at the dinner while the business mogul sat in the audience. 
 
 “Now, I know that he's taken some flak lately, but no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald,” Obama said. “And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” 
 
 Trump brushed aside Obama's comments during an interview days later on Fox News. 
 
 “I didn’t know that I’d be virtually the sole focus. I guess when you’re leading in the polls that sort of thing tends to happen," he said. 
 
 "But I was certainly in a certain way having a good time listening." 
 
 Past dinners have attracted celebrities and athletes from outside of Washington. The association hosted the first dinner in 1921. 
 
 Ronald Reagan was the last president to miss the event after he was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt. Calvin Coolidge became the first sitting president to attend in 1924. 
 
 Trump's decision is his latest jab at news outlets, which he has attempted to delegitimize by labeling "fake news" and "dishonest." 
 
 “I love the First Amendment; nobody loves it better than me. Nobody,” Trump said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 
 
 “But as you saw throughout the entire campaign, and even now, the fake news doesn't tell the truth,” he continued. “I say it doesn't represent the people, it never will represent the people, and we're going to do something about it.” 
 
 Bloomberg L.P., which hosts a high-profile after-party for the dinner, had pulled the plug on the event. Vanity Fair, which usually partners with Bloomberg in throwing the party, announced earlier this month that it would not participate. 
 
 The New Yorker, the magazine that hosts a kickoff party before the dinner, canceled its event earlier this month, while CNN and MSNBC are also reportedly deliberating whether they will pull out of the annual dinner. 
 
 Trump's announcement comes a day after his administration's latest clash with the media. 
 
 The White House faced backlash after press secretary Sean Spicer barred several news outlets from attending a briefing in his office on Friday. 
 
 Several news organizations including The New York Times, The Hill, Politico and CNN were barred from the question-and-answer session, among others. Several right-leaning news organizations were allowed to attend, along with some major networks like ABC. 
 
 The Associated Press and Time magazine, whose correspondents were allowed into Spicer’s briefing, refused to attend, because of the way it was handled. 
 
 Almost immediately, news outlets and journalist groups blasted the decision, including the WHCA. 
 
 “The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House,” Mason said Friday. 
 
 Updated: 5:45 p.m. ||||| President Trump Donald John TrumpMike Huckabee: If Trump nominated Moses to the Supreme Court Dems would still be unhappy Trump admin likely to detain migrant families for months during immigration proceedings: report ICE chief to protesters: We're not the ones separating families MORE says in a new interview that he will likely skip the upcoming White House Correspondents' Association dinner, his second time skipping the annual event as president. 
 
 In an interview Friday with "Bernie & Sid in the Morning" on 77 WABC, the president said he will "probably" not attend the annual gala hosted by the White House Press Association. 
 
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 "It's unlikely I will do the White House correspondents dinner this year," Trump told the hosts, before calling the news media “so bad and so fake." 
 
 Presdient Trump on our show "It's unlikely I will do the White House Correspondence dinner this year" — Bernie & Sid in the Morning (@bernieandsid) April 6, 2018 
 
 Trump says it’s “probably pretty unlikely” that he’ll attend the WH Correspondents’ Dinner. Tells @bernieandsid it’s because the press is “so bad and so fake.” — Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) April 6, 2018 
 
 White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) President Margaret Talev confirmed that the president does not plan to participate in the dinner, noting that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be attending the event. 
 
 "The White House has informed us that the president does not plan to participate in this year's dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment," Talev wrote in a statement. 
 
 "In keeping with tradition, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also will represent the administration at the head table. The April 28 dinner celebrates award-winning reporting, scholarship winners and the vital role of the First Amendment and the free press in American democracy." 
 
 Trump, who frequently criticizes the national news media, often targets negative news stories about his administration or outlets that cover his presidency critically as "fake news." 
 
 Last year, the president declined to attend his first WHCA dinner as president instead attending a campaign rally. 
 
 The decision to hold a competing media event last year irked many in the press, who criticized the president for not showing respect to the reporters who cover his administration. 
 
 “I feel bad, because a lot of White House reporters are going to have to go and cover that and not come to our own dinner,” former WHCA member Julie Mason told The Hill last year. 
 
 “It’s one thing for him to stay home, and that was fine. And he can just tweet about us and be mean, and that would be kind of funny, and it would feel right. But for him to stage a competing event — we just can’t even have our dinner? We just can’t even do that?”
– With trouble already brewing around the event—the Washington Post reports there were calls for news outlets to boycott, and several had already dropped out, according to the Hill—President Trump announced Saturday he wouldn't be attending the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. "Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!" he tweeted Saturday. The event for the political press is typically headlined by the president. The tension leading up to this year's dinner, to be held on April 29, is not exactly shocking given Trump's ongoing war with the media. The Hollywood Reporter reports both Bloomberg and Vanity Fair had already canceled the afterparty they typically host following the event. (Meanwhile, comedian Samantha Bee is counter-programming the White House Correspondents' Dinner with an epic Trump roast.)