Inside the room: Terror at the White House correspondents’ dinner

I said hello to a lot of old friends while seeing many healthy-sized egos who regularly attend. For the most part, it was business as usual. Yet, there was a different mood than most years. President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at the dinner for the first time. There was concern in the air and seemingly more protesters than usual. 

This was the hottest ticket in town. And there was the usual banter: Who would Trump go after in the media? How long would he speak? An hour? Two hours? Will he poke fun at people in his administration?

Also, many were looking forward to Oz Pearlman’s performance. He is the so-called Mentalist who was featured recently on CBS’s 60 Minutes. The mood was festive. 

Entering the massive ballroom, I chatted briefly with former New York Yankee and congressional candidate Mark Teixeira and planned to give a little crap to David Rubinstein, a