The event has been shunned by the Republican tycoon, who has sought to neuter the traditional media since his return to power in a number of moves that critics say are unconstitutional.
The stage instead went to winners of journalism awards who saluted the value of the profession.
Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents' Association, did not directly mention Trump but defended the press against his attacks.
"What we are not is enemies of the people; what we are not are enemies of the state," he said.
He also offered words of support to The Associated Press, banned from the White House press pool by Trump, and Voice of America, which Trump has moved to shut down.
It is normal for presidents to attend the evening -- a formal occasion where the dress code is tuxedos and gowns -- to congratulate distinguished journalists on their work, deliver a jokey speech and enjoy close-to-the-bone gags from a comedian picked by the organizers.
Trump, who gave the gala a wide berth during his first term, had announced he would not attend once again. The president instead attended Pope Francis's funeral in Rome.
Neither was there a comedian to entertain the guests -- a roster of hundreds of journalists, politicians and lobbyists.
The WHCA said it had decided to cancel comic Amber Ruffin to ensure that the focus would be on awards and scholarship rather than political division.
- 'Enemies of the people' -
Ruffin was excoriating in her response to being dropped, telling talk show host Seth Meyers: "No, we have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That's what it says in the First Amendment."
Alex Thompson of Axios, who won an award for coverage of former president Joe Biden, said that the previous White House's efforts to hide Biden's alleged cognitive decline showed that both major US parties were capable of deception.
"We bear responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows," he told the black-tie ceremony.
Anthony Zurcher of the BBC, who won an award for coverage of the Gaza conflict, quipped that he was the evening's entertainment.
"Keep pushing, keep fighting and keep being fearless," Zurcher told the crowd.
For decades, the WHCA has regulated journalists' access to the president, in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, in lockstep with a president who regularly calls journalists "liars" and even "enemies of the people," has put an end to its oversight role.
She now gives pride of place at briefings to what she calls "new media" -- influencers, podcasters and TV presenters who more often than not are unabashed Trump supporters.
The Associated Press, the top US news agency, has seen its access severely curtailed for rejecting Trump's demands to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" -- a decision it has challenged in court.
The Trump administration has also begun to dismantle America's publicly-funded "voices" abroad, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and "Voice of America."
Meanwhile federal funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS is under threat.
Trump has also launched legal assaults on private network CBS and the local Des Moines Register newspaper in Iowa, and brought to heel ABC, which paid $15 million under threat of a libel lawsuit.
