Trump's address takes bitter turn after hailing 'amazing job' by reporters at gala

Donald Trump, who has regularly attacked the press over its coverage of him and his presidency, praised journalists for doing an 'amazing job' as he addressed the White House correspondents' dinner. A day after the Trump administration abandoned, for now, an extraordinary bid to subpoena reporters over their coverage, the US president attended the rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner in Washington on Friday evening. It came three months after the original event was scrapped in April when a man fired a shotgun at a security checkpoint outside the ballroom. The president continued to attack the media on Friday. Insisting his war on Iran was going 'extremely well', he told a roomful of journalists: 'Don't believe the fake news.' The speech included a handful of scripted jokes, one at the expense of Robert F Kennedy, his health secretary, who he quipped had personally run over the cow that became the evening's 'very delicious beef tenderloin.' But much of the evening was devoted to a bitter, caustic roast of his political opponents. He mocked the weight of Chris Christie and Jerry Nadler, imagining the two wrestling over a piece of cheesecake. He also ridiculed the appearance of his critics, including Bruce Springsteen who he said 'looks like hell' and took aim at CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who had been honored earlier for her White House coverage, saying she does not smile enough. Trump said he 'hated' Adam Schiff. At one point, after a joke about term limits fell flat, Trump asked the audience whether anyone understood 'this whole freakin stupid speech that they wrote'. Trump ended his remarks with a line that landed awkwardly, declaring that he planned to run and win a fourth election. 'I won three times, now I'm going to do it again,' the president said, placing a red 'Trump 2028' hat on his head. Before Trump spoke, a series of journalists who published revealing stories on the president received awards on stage. Weijia Jiang, outgoing president of the WHCA, said: 'No matter how complicated or tense the relationship is between the press and the presidency, what we share is far more important than anything else and that is our duty: to serve the American people.'