Trump spares no one at WHCA dinner, taking aim at Dems, press and his own Cabinet

By Fox News · Fox News

President Donald Trump struck a more conciliatory tone Friday at the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner, scrapping the combative speech he had prepared before an assassination attempt upended the annual event in April. The rewrite emphasized unity and gratitude, though the president still couldn't resist slipping in a few familiar jabs at the press while insisting: "The show must go on." Trump returned to the stage just months after gunfire abruptly ended the organization’s annual banquet. An armed suspect, Cole Allen, stormed the event in what authorities say was an attempt to assassinate the president. "The speech that I had ready just a short while. Oh, that was going to be a doozy. I was so psyched. I was going to rip people. And I don't know, just something changed it — really for the better. But I just wouldn't want to do that," Trump said to a room full of journalists and government officials. "But we'll do a little ripping, if you don't mind. But it is true. I said, how do we handle this is going to be a different kind of evening. And it is. And in many ways it's a more beautiful evening, actually," he added. TRUMP HEADS BACK TO CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER MONTHS AFTER GUNFIRE FORCED EVACUATION Trump teed up his typical walk-out song — Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." — and quickly jumped into joking about seeking a third term before striking a more serious chord as he thanked the Secret Service for its work, not only during the attack at the original Correspondents' Dinner , but for protecting him every day. He delivered a speech that went longer than expected, talking for an hour and four minutes. "Just like my presidency, the second time is always better. It's always better, and the third time will be better yet. I'm only kidding," Trump said to some chuckles throughout the room. The president said he could not deliver the same speech he had planned for the first dinner, "ripping" the press, but said "it was for the better" that he changed h…