Even when the comedian stopped his routine to become himself, and became deadly serious, his thoughts were all about Trump. The president is living rent-free in Hasan Minhaj’s head, too.
Some journalists have argued for years that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner should be scrapped. Some boycotted the dinner long before Trump’s arrival. Now, whatever else it is, the ponderous, sprawling, celebrity-heavy event that it has become is based entirely on the presidency. And when the man himself is sitting at the head table, how could it not? The flip side of that is that the absence of the president, for a number of years running, might make it increasingly hard for organizers to keep going.
Trump is already dropping hints that he might attend next year. Maybe he will. But he has an opportunity to kill the dinner simply by refusing to attend for four years straight. Could the dinner really survive as just a celebration of the press, that is, more of the same that we saw Saturday night? Maybe not. Without a president to fixate on and draw the world’s attention, the dinner might conceivably evolve into the annual White House Correspondents’ Association First Amendment Lunch.
It’s up to the president.
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