US President Donald Trump joked about White House “chaos” and poked fun at his aides and wife in a light-hearted speech at an annual dinner on Saturday.
“Nobody does self-deprecating humour better than I do,” he told politicians and journalists in Washington DC.
Mr Trump joked about his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has reportedly had his security clearance downgraded.
“We were late tonight because Jared could not get through security,” the president said.
In wide-ranging remarks at the Gridiron Dinner, he took aim at a number of targets, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mr Trump has said that he would never have appointed Mr Sessions if he had known he was going to recuse himself from leading the investigation into possible Trump ties to Russia.
The president joked that he had offered Mr Sessions a ride to the event, “and he recused himself. What are you going to do?”
Mr Trump also poked fun at:
- Vice-President Mike Pence: “I really am proud to call him the apprentice. But lately he’s showing a particularly keen interest in the news these days. He is asking ‘has he been impeached yet?’ I don’t like that.”
- White House departures: “Now the question everyone keeps asking is, who is going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?”
- Former chief strategist Steve Bannon: “That guy leaked more than the Titanic.”
- The New York Times: “I’m a New York icon. You’re a New York icon. And the only difference is I still own my buildings.”
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: “As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine.”
He added that North Korea had “called up a couple of days ago” to say they would be open for talks. “I said so would we, but you have to denuke,” Mr Trump said. It was not clear if this was part of the joke.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Trump reportedly praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bid to extend his leadership beyond the constitutional limit.
“He’s now president for life. He was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,” CNN quoted him as saying.
China’s governing Communist Party is expected to remove a clause in the constitution which limits a president to two five-year terms later this week.
