Amber Ruffin to Headline 2025 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The White House Correspondents’ Association has tapped Amber Ruffin to host this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner—the first of Donald Trump‘s second presidency.

Ruffin, of course, is no stranger to late-night TV viewers, having served as a longtime writer/featured performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers. She’s also the former host of her own show on Peacock, and a team captain on CNN’s Have I Got News For You.

Donald Trump has something of a tortured history with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, much as he does with the WHCA itself.

The annual event that sees journalists and a handful of Hollywood A-listers mix it up with the president and other D.C politicos has historically tapped a comedian to headline the event, often of the late-night variety. Traditionally the comic and sitting president will both take turns roasting those in the assembled group.

That was certainly the case in 2012, when Seth Meyers headlined the event alongside then-President Barack Obama, who both brutally mocked attendee Donald Trump over his role in the “birther movement.” The story goes that it was his humuliation that night that led Trump to run for president in 2016.

After becoming president the first time, Trump broke with tradition and declined to attend the dinner. The event proceded with comics Hasan Minhaj and Michelle Wolf as headliners the first two years of his presidency, while historian Ron Chernow spoke at the third. (The event was canceled the fourth year due to COVID.)

Although Trump has yet to say whether or not he’ll attend this year’s dinner, choosing Ruffin to headline the event would seem to be a provocative move in and of itself for the WHCA. Like her boss Meyers, Ruffin isn’t known for pulling her punches, especially when it comes to Donald Trump.

“Amber’s unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate,” said Eugene Daniels of Politico, president of the White House Corrrespondents’ Association. “Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press while roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them.

This year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner is scheduled for Saturday April 26, 2025. Stay tuned.

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