The Gridiron Club’s annual dinner skipped making a toast to the current president, breaking a more than 100-year tradition, and instead made a toast to the First Amendment, according to several reports.
Dylan Byers, a founding partner and senior correspondent with Puck News, wrote in a post on X that the “annual off-record” Gridiron Dinner had broken a 140-year tradition of making a toast to the president.
Judy Woodruff, who serves as the president for the Gridiron Club, told Politico she had invited President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, but that “all declined.”
Judy Woodruff speaks at Emory University on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
“I invited the President, the Vice President, the National Security Adviser, and the Interior Secretary — all declined,” Woodruff explained. “I was told the Secretary of State would not be available. To close the evening — when the sitting President usually speaks — we showed video and audio excerpts of the past four Republican presidents, starting with President Trump in 2018. These demonstrated the good humor and fellowship this dinner is all about.”
Woodruff acknowledged that, while the current president speaks “at most” of the club’s dinners, “in some years, the Vice President has filled in,” along with other “high-level” officials from the administration.
Scoop @PuckNews: The Gridiron Dinner, the annual off-record, white tie gathering of D.C. media/political elite, did *not* toast the president at its annual dinner tonight for the first time in its 140-year history. Instead, they toasted the First Amendment.
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) March 16, 2025
While Trump, Vance, Waltz, and Burgum did not attend the dinner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner was there, according to the outlet.
Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, speaks during the 2025 National Retirement Summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Politico reported that members of the Gridiron Club “drew applause for stating their support for the Associated Press” and Voice of America, and that Democrat Maryland Gov. Wes Moore had made “jokes, some of which included ribald punchlines at” the vice president’s expense:
Gridiron members drew applause for stating their support for the Associated Press, currently barred from covering official White House events, and the Voice of America, which the White House Saturday said would be stripped back by executive order to “ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.” It’s also worth noting that more than a decade after journalist Austin Tice was kidnapped in Syria, his mother Debra attended the event and received a standing ovation.
Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, a friend of Vance’s, walked out during Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s jokes, some of which included ribald punchlines at Vance’s expense. “Speaking of couches,” Moore said, after referencing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Oval Office meeting with Trump, Vance and Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy, “I hear JD Vance was supposed to be here tonight. But I heard he pulled out at the last minute.”
Breitbart News reported in 2018 that Trump had decided to attend the Gridiron Club Dinner, after skipping it in 2017 and sending former Vice President Mike Pence instead.
The New York Times reported that current presidents “dating back to” former President William McKinley and former President Theodore Roosevelt have attended the club’s dinner.
