WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump poked fun at the press and honored the Secret Service for protecting him at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Friday, returning to the event celebrating press freedom after a shooting forced the suspension of the original event in April.
Trump, whose administration has often been at odds with the press, started his speech by mostly going along with the warm and relaxed tenor of the evening, alternately mixing friendly jokes with pointed criticism of what he calls the “fake news media.”
But he also could not resist taking cracks at his political adversaries in the press and show business, singling out for personal attacks journalists such as Don Lemon and Lawrence O’Donnell, politicians like Chris Christie and Adam Schiff, and celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Jane Fonda.
Trump suggested he was going easy on the press after he had planned a more fierce criticism last time around.
“This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time,” he said. “I suspect some of you are lucky that our last dinner was cut short because … I was going to go after you.”
