For second year in a row, President Trump to boycott White House correspondents dinner

US President Donald Trump has made it clear that he would skip the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this year as well, continuing with the tradition that he had set in the first year of his term in office, the White House has informed.

It was, however, communicated by the White House that the president will send Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his press secretary, to the event scheduled on April 28, said the country's media.

"The White House has informed us that the President does not plan to participate in this year's dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment," president of White House Correspondents Association Margaret Talev announced in a statement.

Trump, who is known to be a fierce critic of the mainstream media and relies more on Twitter to share his viewpoints and even policy decisions, posted on the social media about "Fake News Media" and "so much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!" a few hours after the announcement about the journalists' dinner was made. It did not make his decision to boycott the event for the second consecutive year a surprise.

In 2017, Trump became the first American president since Ronald Reagan to have skipped the annual event. Reagan did not turn up for the assembly in 1981 as he was recovering from an assassination attempt on March 30 that year.

The event typically features a comedian who roasts the president and his team and then the top executive returns it to the press. Trump was mocked in 2011 by the then president Barack Obama and the comedian who turned up for the day - Seth Meyers. Obama had mocked Trump for his continued suspicion over the authenticity of the former president's birth place while Meyers made fun of him for his decision to run for the presidency as well as his white identity.

It was later said in the American media that the mockery had made Trump ferocious to earn recognition in the political world.