This, That, and the Other

Donald Trump is once again not going to the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner this coming Saturday, calling it “too negative.” This will be the third year in a row that the President has refused to attend the dinner.

But this year he is expanding his boycott of the annual press gathering. White House aides told administration officials and staff, some of whom attended last year’s event, that Trump did not want them to attend this year’s.

“The President and members of his administration will not attend the White House Correspondents Dinner this year,” the White House said in a written statement. And it appears that officials will heed the president’s order.

Unbelievable. Trump is the first president ever to order administration officials to boycott the dinner. He is also the first president since Ronald Reagan to not to attend the dinner. Reagan missed the event in 1981, when he was recovering from an assassination attempt.

So why the boycott by Trump, members of his administration, and White House aides?

First, Trump hates the free press, calling reporters and journalists “the enemy of the American people” and purveyors of “fake news” (i.e., anything not flattering to Trump).

Second, Trump is extremely thin-skinned and hates it when anyone pokes fun at him or makes jokes about him.

I saw a quote the other day from Arthur Koestler, a Hungarian-British author and journalist. He wrote, “Dictators fear laughter more than bombs.”

There’s little more you need to know in order to understand why Donald Trump, as President, has never attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner. He fears being laughed at.

I’d say that this is unbelievable, but in the Trump era, it is all too believable.

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