Melania Trump has chosen to make one of her rare public appearances with husband Donald Trump on a night that could be extremely embarrassing for the US President.

Trump will end his boycott of the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday (US time), after having previously so far avoided the event in every year of his two presidential terms.

In 2017, Trump became the first president in 36 years to skip the dinner. Last month he confirmed his attendance at the 2026 event in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“In honour of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of the Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation,” he wrote.

Since Trump accepted the invitation for the first time, the White House Correspondents Association has announced awards to be given on the night, including one that could be humiliating for him.

The Wall Street Journal will be honoured for its bombshell report about a lewd birthday letter that Trump allegedly sent to the late sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The WSJ will received the Katherine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for reporting on the 2003 letter.

The letter, written inside the outline of a female figure, includes an imagined dialogue between the two former close friends.

“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” it concludes, with Trump’s signature placed suggestively in the pubic area.

The birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly signed by Trump.

Trump has denied writing the letter and sued the Journal for defamation for $10 billion. The US Federal Court dismissed his lawsuit on the same day the WHCA announced its award.

Compounding Trump’s potential embarrassment, the president traditionally shakes award-winners’ hands.

Melania, meanwhile, made a statement earlier this month denying ever having a relationship with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, despite photos and emails suggesting otherwise.

In addition to the WSJ, Trump has sued broadcasters ABC News, and CBS News, as well as The New York Times.

The WHCA will also present The New York Times with the Centre for Integrity in news reporting award for White House coverage that “has the courage not to fear and the discipline not to favour”.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins – who Trump has previously called “stupid” and “nasty” – will receive the WHCA’s top prize for broadcast coverage.

The last time Trump attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was in 2011, when former president Barack Obama was in office. 

Trump was famously the subject of many jokes at that dinner at the hands of host Seth Meyers. Myers later claimed that Trump wrote to lawyer Michael Cohen to demand an apology.

This year Trump is apparently planning on doing the roasting. His daughter-in-law Lara Trump said he had hired “joke writers” to help with his first WHCD speech.

“He’s got some great people who he’s tapping to help him with this, but he comes up with a lot of good material as you see on Truth Social, as you see live in the flesh, himself,” she said during the this week’s Citizen McCain With Meghan McCain podcast.

“He is one of the funniest people I have ever met,” said Lara, wife of Eric Trump.