Trevor Noah to headline 1st White House Correspondents' Dinner since 2019

The White House Correspondents' Dinner is back.

The gathering of politicians and journalists is set to return in April for the first time since 2019, with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah scheduled to headline.

"Trevor is an incredible talent who keeps us laughing — and thinking — four nights a week," White House Correspondents' Association President Steven Portnoy said. "We can't wait for him to help bring our 100-year Washington tradition 'Back to Abnormal.'"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The president typically attends the yearly White House Correspondents' Dinner, at which comedians poke fun at him and he delivers his own comedic address. But former President Donald Trump broke with that tradition, skipping all of the dinners held while he was president. The most recent was in 2019, and in another break from tradition, the headliner was not a comedian but instead a historian. The event was then canceled in 2020 and again in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so this will be the first one held under President Biden's administration.

Noah will also be the first comedian to headline the dinner since Michelle Wolf. In 2018, Wolf drew backlash for some of her jokes at the event, in particular a jab that then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders "burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye." At the time, Noah came to Wolf's defense on The Daily Show, playing a montage of Trump commenting on women's appearances.

"Michelle should have had the decency not to comment on women's appearances in any way, shape, or form," Noah sarcastically joked. "She's a comedian, for God's sake, not the president."

The White House Correspondents' Dinner, which the WHCA noted will be the "first opportunity since 2016 for the press and the president to share a few laughs for a good cause," is scheduled for April 30.