GOP, Trump, Kardashians: Obama tweaks ’em all

Haraz N. Ghanbari / The Associated Press

This year’s presidential primaries, the 2008 primaries, the General Services Administration scandal, even the Secret Service and Donald Trump were targets for President Barack Obama’s scattershot humor at Saturday night’s celebrity-studded White House Correspondents Dinner. Even the entrance to his speech was part of his schtick. The president walked off stage just before he took the podium with an alleged “hot mic,” making fun of getting caught last month on an open microphone with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. “What am I doing here?” he asks off stage. “I’m opening for Jimmy Kimmel and telling knock-knock jokes to Kim Kardashian.” Late-night comic Kimmel (pictured high-fiving the president as Caren Bohan, a Reuters journalist and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, looks on) headlined the event. Among those who attended Saturday night’s dinner were Lindsay Lohan, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, John Legend, Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno and a host of lawmakers and dignitaries. The association was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended. Once on stage, the president revisited last year’s dinner. “Last year at this time, this very weekend, we finally delivered justice to one of the world’s most notorious individuals,” Obama said, a seeming reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Instead, a picture of Trump appeared on the room’s TV monitors. Obama last year delivered a scathing roast of the real estate mogul who flirted with running for the Republican nomination. The dinner was far from a campaign-free zone. The president pointed out his similarities with the presumed nominee, Mitt Romney. “We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one, he has two. What a snob.” The crack drew a thumbs-up from Rick Santorum, in the crowd, who during his campaign called Obama a snob for encouraging young Americans to attend college. Obama touched on serious themes as well, remembering, for example, journalists who died while covering the uprising in Syria. “Never forget that our country depends on you to help protect our freedom, our democracy and our way of life.” Then he returned to the lighter side: “I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.” — The Associated Press