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United States President Donald Trump has said he will not attend the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, a high-profile event that draws celebrities, politicians and journalists.
His announcement came a day after the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) president Jeff Mason said they were "protesting strongly" against the White House's decision to exclude several major news outlets from an informal press briefing.
Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer.
Mr Trump has had a strained relationship with the press, calling journalists "the enemy of the people" and frequently criticising outlets and individual reporters whose coverage he does not like.
The annual WHCA dinner will be held on April 29 in Washington.
Every sitting president since 1924 has attended the dinner at least once, according to The New York Times.
Some news outlets such as Bloomberg News and The New Yorker, which typically host lavish after-parties, have said they are backing out this year.
In a statement following Mr Trump's tweet, Mr Mason said the organisation "looks forward to having its annual dinner on April 29".
Mr Mason called the dinner "a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic".
Critics say the event, which usually features a humorous speech by the sitting president, encourages journalists to cosy up to politicians they should cover aggressively.
The event occasionally makes news: in 2011, President Barack Obama delivered a scathing evisceration of Mr Trump, joking that the mogul, who sat stone-faced in the audience, would move on from questioning Mr Obama's citizenship to figuring out "did we fake the moon landing".
Mr Trump did not attend the event last year.
"You've got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras and he says no. Is this dinner too tacky for the Donald?" Mr Obama joked.
"What could he possibly be doing instead? Is he at home, eating a Trump steak? Tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel? What's he doing?"
The fun did not stop there. Mr Obama allowed himself several more jabs at the real estate mogul, before eventually concluding "that's probably enough".
"They say Donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be president. But, in fairness, he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world — Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan," he quipped.
"And there's one area where Donald's experience could be invaluable and that in closing Guantanamo, because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground."
You can watch Mr Obama's full speech below.
Reuters/AP
Topics: donald-trump, us-elections, world-politics, united-states
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