US President Donald Trump will again snub an annual dinner celebrating the White House press corp, continuing a boycott that began in his first year of office.

Mr Trump, renowned for his agnostic relationship with the media, last year became the first president to snub the century-old annual gala since Ronald Reagan, who in 1981 was recovering from an assassination attempt.

The decision was unsurprising given Mr Trump’s strained relationship with the media.

Using his preferred method of communication, the president fired off a series of Twitter missives just hours after the White House announcement on Friday, condemning what he called the “fake news media”.

First Lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and comedienne Cecily Strong at the annual White House Correspondent’s Association Gala in 2015. Photo: Getty

“So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!” he wrote.

The White House said Mr Trump will “actively encourage” members of his administration to attend the dinner which celebrates the First Amendment of freedom of speech and religion in the United States Constitution.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will represent Mr Trump at the April 28 dinner, sitting at the head table where presidents, first ladies and vice presidents have been sat in the past.

The White House Correspondents Association dinner – established in 1921 – is held annually at a Washington hotel and features speeches from the sitting president and comedians who mock the president and the administration.

Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege? Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2018

The dinner is an opportunity for the US leader to speak informally, with former US president Barack Obama notably using the gala to show off his comedic talent.

In lieu of attending last year’s dinner, Mr Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania where he told the crowd the US media were incompetent and biased.

“Their priorities are not my priorities, and not your priorities,” he told the audience, adding that reporters were “consoling each other in a Washington ballroom”.

The dinner became a flash point for press freedom when the president of the Correspondents’ Association, Jeff Mason of Reuters, declared: “We are not fake news”.

“We are not failing news organisations. And we are not the enemy of the American people.”

Ebony Bowden reported from New York City.