President Donald Trump returned to the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association dinner Friday night, delivering a rambling, hour-long speech that praised some journalists, took potshots at others, made jokes about public figures' weight and intellect, and quipped about a third presidential term.He assured the crowd of journalists, though, that he'd scrapped the most biting parts of his remarks."That was going to be a doozy," Trump said about the speech he'd been prepared to give in April, before a gunman upended the original dinner and forced its postponement."As I said three months ago, the show must go on," the president said to begin his remarks, hailing the decision to reschedule the dinner.He referred to "the attempted mass murder" that could have happened that night in April, but then moved largely to humor — and insults.Trump's return to the correspondents' dinner — and his promise to come back next year as well — represented a notable moment in his relationship with the news media, which he has attacked, sued and taken administrative action against since he began his second term early last year.
Among the audience members were reporters he had denounced and barred from events.Trump's sometimes off-color speech, which lasted just over an hour, was full of vague potshots directed at individuals he doesn't like — from Jane Fonda to Bruce Springsteen to "Barack Hussein Obama." The audience, reacting at first with some friendly laughs, slowly quieted to scattered titters as the insults piled up.Among other targets of Trump's humor: Late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel; Rep.Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; California Gov.
Gavin Newsom; former New Jersey Gov.Chris Christie; and Trump's own speechwriters, whose jokes he sometimes criticized even as he delivered them.
Some of the comments flirted with racism.The president also spent some time expressing pride in the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel."It...