"But the president reserved his most biting commentary for the Republicans running for president, repeatedly turning to the party’s chaotic nominating contest for comedic fodder.
Mr. Obama mocked Senator Ted Cruz for calling a basketball hoop a “basketball ring” while campaigning in Indiana.
“What else is in his lexicon?” Mr. Obama asked, working hard to contain a broad smile. “Baseball sticks? Football hats?”
He paused, then added: “But sure, I’m the foreign one.”
The president showed a picture of Gov. John Kasich of Ohio eating pancakes as he noted that “some candidates aren’t polling high enough to qualify for their own joke tonight.” And he tweaked Republicans in the audience for their search for an alternative candidate, noting that the options for dinner were steak or fish.
“A whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan,” he said. “You may not like steak or fish. But that’s your choice.”
And then there was Donald Trump. Mr. Obama riffed at length about Mr. Trump, the billionaire-turned-front-runner, who was not in attendance. The president wondered aloud why Mr. Trump had chosen not to be there.
“You’ve got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras, and he said no,” Mr. Obama said. “Is this dinner too tacky for the Donald?”
He joked that Mr. Trump had some foreign policy experience because “he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan.”
And he noted that Mr. Trump may be the best person to succeed in closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground,” Mr. Obama said."
NYTimes: Obama Needles Clinton and G.O.P. Field at Correspondents’ Dinner
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