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WASHINGTON, U.S. – Following this week’s announcement by the White House Correspondents’ Association, the U.S. President Donald Trump – who has had a fraught relationship with the country’s mainstream media – seemed to have had a change of heart.

In response to the pushback that the White House Correspondents’ Association has faced over the sharply anti-Trump performance by comedian Michelle Wolf at the previous annual dinner, the association announced that the annual dinner next year would be addressed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow.

Chernow is best known for writing acclaimed biographies of prominent figures such as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and John D. Rockefeller.

For years now, the White House Correspondents’ Association annual black-tie dinner has featured big names from the politics and entertainment industries as guests of media organizations.

The one-of-a-kind annual event celebrating political journalism has become a time-honored institution in Washington, D.C. and is traditionally attended by the U.S. President.

The annual dinner often features a prominent comedian as the host, whose role has typically been to roast the country’s president, members of the media and other official fixtures in Washington.

Further, the forum, which draws over 2,000 reporters, celebrities and advertisers to the Washington Hilton each year, also provides the president an opportunity to deliver his own light-hearted remarks.

However, last year, Trump became the first U.S. President in 36 years to skip the White House Correspondents’ Association annual black-tie dinner.

Instead, Trump held a grand campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to ring in his 100th day in power.

Further, for the first time since the event’s inception in 1921, none of the White House staff members attended the dinner in 2017, with all the invited members of the Trump administration turning down invitations to be guests at the event.

Then, on April 28 this year, Trump, who has constantly feuded with several media personalities and organizations ever since he assumed office, snubbed the dinner for the second consecutive year.

However, the performance by Wolf at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner forced many in the country to take sides.

The 32-year-old comedian’s brutal routine targeting the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who attended the event along with 3,000 members of the U.S. press and government, drew audible gasps from the crowd and divided opinion in the aftermath.   

Wolf also targeted Trump, his daughter Ivanka and his White House staff, while also joking about some of America’s most controversial subjects including gun control and abortion.

Wolf said at the event this year, “I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”

Wolf also called Sanders “Uncle Tom but for white women” – an apparent critique of her feminist credentials.

She also compared Ivanka Trump to a nappy, saying “on the outside she looks sleek, but the inside, it’s still full of shit” and referred to the president’s alleged relationship with the adult movie actress Stormy Daniels, adding at one point, “like a porn star says when she’s about to have sex with Trump, let’s get this over with.”

Her performance, which saw several members of the audience walking out, led to a heated debate among politicians, commentators and members of the public alike and drew a thrashing from the U.S. President. 

At the time, Margaret Talev, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association said, “The program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honouring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission. To some extent, those 15 minutes are now defining four hours of what was a really wonderful, unifying night. And I don’t want the cause of unity to be undercut.”

Describing the prestigious black tie event, Trump said, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!”

Meanwhile, this week, in a first, Trump hinted at attending next year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but repeated his criticism of Wolf. 

On Tuesday, Trump suggested that he might attend next year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner since the event no longer features a comedian.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday night, “So-called comedian Michelle Wolf bombed so badly last year at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that this year, for the first time in decades, they will have an author instead of a comedian. Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition! Maybe I will go?”

He added, “Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition.”

However, more than an hour after Trump tweeted, Wolf hit back at the President and wrote, “I bet you’d be on my side if I had killed a journalist.”

The comedian also mocked First Lady Melania Trump’s anti-bullying campaign by including her campaign slogan, ”#BeBest.”

Further, following the decision by the White House Correspondents’ Association to feature the author Ron Chernow for the April 27 event next year, Wolf called the association “cowards.”

She tweeted, “The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder.”