Trump speaks at his first White House Correspondents' Dinner, in redo after April attack

President Trump cracked jokes at reporters and politicians during take two of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Friday night, after April's event was upended when an armed assailant rushed through a security checkpoint and the U.S. Secret Service opened fire on the gunman. Three months after the suspect was stopped outside the Washington Hilton's ballroom, Mr. Trump attended the White House Correspondents' Association's do-over of the dinner at a different Washington hotel -- the Waldorf Astoria, which was once a Trump Organization hotel. The event highlighted the president's sometimes-tense relationship with the press. Mr. Trump has sparred with many of the journalists who spoke or accepted awards during the dinner -- though he didn't visibly express frustration while seated on stage, and he shook the award-winners' hands. The president smiled as CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer described The Wall Street Journal's reporting on Mr. Trump's past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. 'This has not been an easy evening,' Mr. Trump later joked during his speech, referring to the award-winners. Mr. Trump said the assembled journalists included 'a lot of people that I like, some I don't like at all, but I respect most of them.' He told the audience he scrapped some sharp-tongued material that he was planning to deliver in April: 'I was going to rip people,' he said, calling it 'such a letdown.' At other points, the president joked about his penchant for drawing press attention. 'You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I'm gone, you're all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished,' Mr. Trump said, later donning a 'Trump 2028' hat. Weijia Jiang said: 'There is ... an existential difference between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it. One is healthy and it makes all of us better. The other is exactly what the founders hoped to prevent.' Secret Service officials have warned that nationwide threats have reached an unprecedented level, with agents opening roughly 10,000 protective intelligence cases since January -- a nearly 40% increase from the same period last year.