White House staff are joining the president this year in skipping the annual White House correspondents dinner in an apparent show of solidarity with Dear Leader.

President Trump announced via Twitter last month that he would not be attending, which seemingly sparked a falling off of several parties surrounding the event from publications like People and Variety magazines.

While the president said in his tweet that he wished everyone well and to have a great evening, there was a question of whether White House staff, who typically also attend the event, would still show. A report from The Hill now tells us that answer is no.

Trump and White House staff haven’t ruled out going in the future, but the president said in an interview on Fox News , “I just thought it would be better if I didn’t do it this year.”

For being an awards dinner, the correspondent’s dinner has become an unworthy spectacle. The hype around it is the most manufactured of manufactured news. A night where journalists get to mingle with celebrities and because they and they’re comrades are the ones creating the news, it’s become a vicious cirlce of the snake eating its tail.

A year without the president and being a low-key event in the vein of typical awards dinner, might be best for reminding journalists that they aren’t celebrities and they shouldn’t be the news.