Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked that he should host the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner after learning that President Donald Trump will attend.
During his opening monologue Tuesday night, Kimmel reported on Trump accepting an invitation to attend the dinner for the first time in his presidency after opting out of the event entirely during his first term. This will also be the first time Trump has attended the dinner since 2011, when he appeared as a celebrity.
Kimmel pointed out that this year’s dinner will break with tradition by hiring Oz Pearlman, a famed mentalist, to emcee, instead of a comedian.
“The dinner is traditionally hosted by a comedian,” Kimmel said. “Al Franken hosted it. Ray Romano, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, Conan [O’Brien], Wanda Sykes. I googled it this morning — turns out I even hosted it back in 2012. This year, I guess Trump didn’t want to be made fun of by a comedian, so the host is a mentalist. We’ll have a mentalist and a mental case onstage together.”
