Alec Baldwin is lobbying to play Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in the President's absence

Trump says he will not be attending the annual event

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is essentially The Roast of the President of the United States of America, so it came as little surprise last week when President Trump - who notoriously doesn’t take laughs at his expense well - said he will not be attending this year.

The tradition of the President dining with the press and mocking himself goes right back to Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and it’s unclear what a WHCA Dinner without the POTUS will look like.

Alec Baldwin has an idea though: he could stand in for Trump. Actors and celebrities always turn out for the dinner anyway, and Baldwin has been very successfully impersonating the president on SNL of late.

“I wouldn’t say I’m not lobbying,” he told Jimmy Kimmel when asked about the possibility, noting that others are also pushing to play Trump’s stand in at the 29 April event.

But “you own it,” Kimmel responded, “It should be whoever the president hates seeing do it the most. And that’s undoubtedly you.”

Asked about the impact of a Trump-less dinner, WHCA president Jeff Mason told ITK: “It will be different, that’s for sure.

“But the overall mission of the dinner is going to be on full display regardless of who is sitting on the stage. And that’s what we’re focused on.

“The dinner will be celebrating the First Amendment and celebrating the good work of our members, and lifting up our scholarship winners, as it does every year.”