The White House correspondents’ dinner is abandoning comedy, instead hosting the historian Ron Chernow as its featured speaker at next year’s event.
The annual black tie dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents Association has traditionally featured a prominent comedian roasting the president, who in turn shares his own wisecracks with the assembled journalists and celebrities. But Donald Trump, who frequently attacks the press, has refused to attend the dinner.
The WHCA president, Oliver Knox, announced the more serious turn on Monday. Chernow, who has written biographies of founding fathers and American presidents, is expected to give a speech at the 27 April event on the importance of freedom of the press.
Comedy routines at the dinner have caused controversy over the years. Last year the headliner was comedian Michelle Wolf, who sparked a backlash with searing jokes at the expense of the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders.
“She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye,” Wolf said of Sanders, who was seated at the head table. “Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
Comedian Stephen Colbert delivered one of the dinner’s best-known roasts during the George W Bush administration, paying tribute to the president in his conservative news host character. “We’re not members of the fact police. We go straight from the gut, right sir? That’s where the truth lies, right down here in the gut,” he said.
But the dinner has struck an off note in the Trump era for some critics, who see the display of good-natured camaraderie as out of sync amid the president’s attacks on the press as enemies of the people. The White House is now in a court fight with CNN, attempting to revoke the press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta.
The president’s absence has also removed much of the traditional comedic back and forth from the dinner, where past chief executives aided by a staff of joke writers have sought to give as good as they get.
President Barack Obama delivered a particularly memorable roast in 2011 targeting Trump, then a billionaire businessman who was spreading the false rumor that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, and who was reported to have felt humiliated while sitting in the audience that night.
Chernow, this year’s speaker, has written biographies of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and Ulysses S Grant.
“Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics. My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse of memory. While I have never been mistaken for a standup comedian, I promise that my history lesson won’t be dry,” he said.