Comedian Amber Ruffin's performance at WHCA’s annual dinner has been canceled amid tensions with Trump administration 

The announcement that the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) will not be including a comedic show (Amber Ruffin) in the annual dinner came in through email. The mail was written and addressed by WHCA's President, Eugene Daniels. The reason for the cancellation is due to issues between the WHCA and President Donald Trump's association.

Initially, the comedic piece was supposed to be performed by American comedian, writer, and actress Amber Ruffin. However, the decision to remove the comedic element came in after Taylor Budowich, who is the White House deputy chief of staff, pointed out that Ruffin has not always been supportive of the Trump administration.

This prompted Daniels to write an email on March 29, 2025, stating,

"The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year" - WHCA President Eugene Daniels wrote in the email to the members.

He also talked about how the focus should be placed on the association's journalists and

"focus is not on the politics of division" - Daniels said.

Problems between the WHCA and the Trump administration: More details

In recent developments, the WHCA and the Trump administration (White House) are in a tussle because of how the Trump administration attacked the press. The role of choosing the press pool that will cover President Trump is usually chosen by the WHCA.

But recently, after altercations with the press, the Trump administration has declared that it will be taking over this responsibility from now on, and in the process, they have decided to ban The Associated Press.

Taylor Budowich came on X to express his thoughts about their pick, Amber Ruffin. He said,

"No accountability at WHCA, just a cop out statement—pathetic!" Budowich targeted Eugene Daniels, WHCA's President, with this statement.

He also added,

"so sad that such a storied and consequential group has been so quickly driven into irrelevancy." - Budowich expressed.

On the other hand, Amber Ruffin has butted heads with how the Trump administration is handling things. During one of her previous shows on Amber Says What?, she made fun of the fact that the Trump administration is not allowing The Associated Press' members to attend meetings at the Oval Office.

This was because of their refusal to consent to Trump's decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

In her words, she says on her show,

"I was like ‘What! Now you care about deadnaming?"

Before all the drama, when Amber Ruffin was chosen for the comedic act at the annual dinner, WHCA President Daniels described her as someone with,

"unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate" - Daniels expressed.

As for the President, he has yet to confirm whether he will be present for the annual dinner. This is because Trump did not attend any of the annual dinner events during his first term as president.

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