As you may have heard, President Donald J. Trump declined the invitation to the 2017 Annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner, breaking a popular tradition of Presidents attending and speaking at the conference. One comedian always attends and speaks for around 25 minutes. However, since he is not attending, he will not make a speech in front of the dinner crowd. This clears up roughly 20 minutes of airtime and speaking time for another comedian to step in and replace him. Here are some ideas…

Samantha Bee

Samantha has already said that she wants to roast Trump the same night that he attends the dinner. Why not just let her do it at the dinner? This would be a platform for her to speak her ideas(hilariously by the way) to the media audience and to the general public. Her show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, has received amazing ratings and a lot of publicity. Imagine how hilarious it would be if the host of the Dorian Award winning show was able to make fun of the president. If the president won’t attend, maybe she should.

Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin is known for playing Donald Trump on NBC’s hit show, Saturday Night Live. Donald Trump has tweeted against him before saying that he, “can’t get any worse.” He has called Saturday Night Live, “unwatchable!” Maybe a good replacement for President Trump, would be a fake President Trump. Who better to play the part than Alec Baldwin?

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is known for when he entertained at the 2006 dinner. He still today rips on Trump and members of the republican party. Even better, he could be especially harsh given that the president will not be in attendance. And if you have seen what he said in 2006, then you know that Stephen Colbert’s version of harsh, is different than yours and mine. It’s worse. He was really hard on President Bush in 2006, and that was with him in attendance. Without a president in attendance, Stephen Colbert could get a lot of media attention.

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart has been off the air for a while since he left The Daily Show. However, he still sometimes will come back on his old show with Trevor Noah or on Colbert’s Late Night. If he rips on Donald Trump and the media on those shows, then maybe he should confront his audience at the correspondent’s dinner.

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah would be a newcomer to the dinner, but given his acts on his show, The Daily Show, it would be a sight to see. Trevor Noah engages in political satire and debate on his show which he has led since Jon Stewart left. Imagine what he could do if he was given the speaking slot at the correspondent’s dinner!

If viewers and the correspondents want a hilarious and fun corespondent’s dinner, without the president in attendance, any of these 5 choices would be beneficial. Maybe we will see at least one of them on April 29, 2017, the night of the dinner. The last time a president didn’t attend the dinner was in 1981, when President Ronald Regean was recuperating from an assassination attempt. This is incredibly unusual, so I think that we should use this opportunity wisely.