I guess the security was effective at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner [scroll down for UPDATES]
President Donald Trump never left the White House Correspondents’ Dinner venue and remained nearby following the security scare that briefly disrupted the event, Fox News can confirm.
Trump was moved to a secure holding area as a precaution and “wants the show to go on,” according to Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
Sources familiar with the situation told Fox News an individual attempted to get through security screening with a gun but was stopped by Secret Service before entering the ballroom. The suspect has since been taken offsite.
Apparently shots were fired, but not in the room where the even was being held. Is the would-be assailant alive?
It must have been quite a scene, one we could have done without:
Attendees were eating a spring pea and burrata salad, and waiters began preparing to bring out the next course when a security detail appeared on the ballroom floor and yelled for everyone to get down. Journalists in gowns and tuxedos ducked near tables as wine splattered onto white tablecloths and glasses clinked in the hurry to seek safety.
Armed security burst through the doors of the ballroom and raced toward the dias where Trump sat as attendees ducked or crouched under tables. At one point, someone in the room shouted, “USA!”
Trump said that a “shooter has been apprehended” in a post to Truth Social …
Sounds as though the shooter is alive, but I assume more information will be forthcoming.
The event was held at the Washington Hilton, which may explain how it is that the shooter got that far, if other guests were permitted in other parts of the hotel. Vance was also at the dinner, as was Rubio. This was also Trump’s first time attending the dinner as president.
Someone apparently thought it was a target-rich environment. I’m extremely glad no one was hurt.
UPDATE 12:10 AM
The Daily Mail has a series of articles and photos.
This:
The president confirmed that the suspect has been apprehended and that a Secret Service agent wearing a protective vest was shot, but is in ‘great shape.’
‘Tonight, they had everything covered very quickly. And he was fast. He was running full blast, and they got him before they got any further,’ the president said of the shooting.
The gunman has been identified and is alive:
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California near LA is the alleged shooter who opened fire at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
The educator from the Los Angeles area was quickly apprehended by law enforcement moments after breaching a security checkpoint. He faces firearms and assault charges.
Police revealed the suspect had a number of weapons on him including a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives.
President Trump shared a stunning image shortly after the shooting, showing the suspect shirtless and lying face down on the carpet. Law enforcement confirmed he was not struck by gunfire while being stopped but has since been taken to the hospital for evaluation. [see photo at link, along with many other photos]
The suspect appears to be a young black or Hispanic man.
One of the many people in attendance was Erika Kirk, who was understandably visibly upset by the frightening incident.
I have to say it’s practically a miracle that no one was killed. The suspect was well-armed, and he was fast:
And typical responses to the YouTube video; I didn’t have to search for them, they were right up there:
@CuttinBlade
16 minutes ago
You cannot believe anything that you see or hear coming from the Trump administration@Ag23445
3 minutes ago
Just another false flag because his ratings are down. We still haven’t seen close-up damage of his ear from the supposed gunshot wound. They sure shut those investigations down quick as well.@blkvixon
31 seconds ago
Did this to distract the first fake assassination and bring attention to the Ballroom
UPDATE 12:48 AM
Allen lists his employment as a teacher in a $25 donation to Kamala Harris in 2024. He is registered to vote in California as “no party preference.”
His LinkedIn profile indicates he’s been a part-time teacher at C2 Education in Torrance, California. C2 is a national tutoring and college counseling provider.
Allen posted on LinkedIn he received his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 2017 and his master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills in 2025. …
In December 2024, Allen’s employer C2 named him the Teacher of the Month and posted a photo on the group’s social media.
Before that job, Allen listed his employment as a self-employed video game developer. The PC game he developed was listed on the website Steam for download tied to his name.
Before that, Allen says he worked for a year as an engineer at IJK Controls based on South Pasadena. And before that he was a teaching assistant at California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles.
UPDATE 4/26 2:40 PM
I’ve written a new post on the subject that can be found here.
Upsetting. The president is safe and posting on truth social.
“ Sources told Fox News the individual never made it inside the ballroom, was taken into custody and removed from the scene.
President Trump was seen being quickly escorted out of the room by security, and White House officials tell Fox News Digital both he, the first lady and Karoline Leavitt are safe at this time.”
Shooter is alive and has been identified, supposedly. I thought better of linking to it, because this has been wrong before; sometimes it’s the right name and people start posting about a wrong guy with the same name.
Just one shooter? CNN supposedly reported that the shooter was shot and killed by the Secret Service, and Fox Business supposedly reported that there were two suspects.
Apparently tickets were checked outside the hotel (there were multiple events going on), but the metal detectors were only near the entrance to the dinner. That seems a bit lax to me.
Fox News unknowingly Did the Meme.
https://a57.foxnews.com/assets.foxnews.com/liveblog/fn/prod/images/2026/04/960/540/6d441436bf0d4364f520a6a3057cc6ec.jpg?tl=1&ve=1
Who had “Assassinating the President in front of the entire Press Establishment” on their Bingo card?
I wonder if someone at Fox suggested that for the one blank square and was voted down.
It’s down near the beginning of the reverser-order timeline.
Just to save time tomorrow: the 72-hour rule for not believing anything the media says or prints will run until sometime Tuesday night.
16 sec security camera video of shooter rushing through check station, with immediate reaction of guys on station. Looks like the SS agent shot is center camera.
https://x.com/i/status/2048228609488310665
I was looking at the Sunday (London) Times post that miguel linked when the News came up on the sidebar.
The Brits, as usual, already had more pictures than the US pundits that Neo referred to.
https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/correspondents-dinner-shooting-trump-shots-fired-white-house-f2ww280ck
From AesopFan’s link: “A law enforcement officer was shot but was wearing a “very good bulletproof vest” and is “doing great,” Trump said.
Trump said the incident proved his ballroom addition to the White House was necessary for security.” Always thinking!! About how to better his position! In this case, a very good point!
Good the LEO was wearing a protective vest. I wonder if any of the principals also has vests on under their tux’es. Probably not, as they would have expected security to be solid enough.
But no reports yet about any friendly “roasting”?
Patel was there too, with his girlfriend (a Country Western singer I think). Supposedly he told people at his table to get down, but he stayed standing.
Will any of the reporters there understand that they might be somewhat responsible for this?
@ sdferr > “video of shooter rushing through check station, with immediate reaction of guys on station”
That was an impressive run by the shooter.
I saw one agent go back to see if there is anyone behind him, one stayed by the entry gate (magnetometer to check for guns) as he should, and everyone else followed the shooter.
Good thing he wasn’t the front of a serious incursion, though.
I wonder if there was anyone at the beginning of his run or was that outside direct surveillance?
Those gates are pathetic security devices, obviously useless for a determined assassin, and I suspect that will NOT be the norm going forward.
Next step: bollards and caltrops in the hallways?
In re the pictures at the London Times, the lead is a closeup of Trump looking at Melania, taken from her end of the table; she is clearly reacting to something, but he is not.
You can see that same moment from a distance at the beginning of the C-SPAN video — h/t Brian E. on the Open Thread, who suggests the noise level was so high Trump didn’t hear the shots, in which case Melania was most likely reacting to the SS agents storming inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIZh8nHZ4m4
I was very impressed with the agent who almost casually (but certainly quickly) walked to the front of the President’s table and faced the room with his body completely covering the President from view.
The serious guys are really serious about their job.
AesopFan, Trump said at the press conference he thought it was either someone dropping plates or shots. He hoped it was plates being dropped.
Anybody really surprised?
Tell me true…
(Just over a year before the 2024 election, someone blew into the room I was in, in NYC, declaring that Trump should be killed. This fellow, 50 or so years old, categorized himself as “a moderate”…. Guess we’ll have to redefine “moderate”…among other things…)
An engineering degree from CalTech and he’s working as a part-time tutor? That’s some serious underemployment.
Terrific fire discipline.
Somebody figured they could tackle the gunman just as effectively as shooting him, and so we didn’t have bullets flying into a crowded room.
Good on whomever it was.
And now we shall observe the compassionate justice system at work, declaring the shooter “mentally ill/unfit for trial,” while the equally compassionate and patriotic media lionize him for his actions and the deranged left (which completely overlaps the “media” in the Venn diagram of those two groups) calls this another false flag and burrows deeper into its bunker of madness. I expect the democrats to declare en mass that they “condemn violence on the right” and continue to repeat calls for the overthrow of the Trump Administration “by any means necessary.” That’s the world we live in.
We’ll see how reported details shake out over the next few days. If he actually has a degree from CalTech, my wager would be that he’s had a schizophreniform episode in the intervening years.
What’s the over-under on the number of weeks Heather Cox Richardson will devote to the task of arguing that the shooter is a MAGA supporter?
Seems to had a good career but decided going out in a early Blaze of Glory for the Revolution was going to make him famous.
Didn’t think it through enough that it had extremely slim chance to succeed.
I’ve read comments on various sites and the ” false flag” or ” staged” type comments by the TDS crowd are already out there.
If you consider what is happening to Musk and X, the first goal is to capture the public stage, if he gets Trump that’s a bonus.
I was blissfully unaware of this until this morning watching my current favorite K romcom and then going to bed. WOW…what a thing to wake up to.
So does Trump hold the record for attempted assassinations for a POTUS? If so, it show how bad the level of TDS is in the country and how the media and the D leadership keep stoking the fires. And as Neo, and Jon Baker have pointed out, I’m already seeing the response of “false flag” from my D friends. The mental breakdown of 50% of the population is going to harm this country more than any potential nuke from Iran. Mark Levitt pointed this out last night just before the incident apparently.
Seems to had a good career
==
From what’s been reported so far (revisions later), he has had a meh work history considering he has an engineering degree (much less one from CalTech). That’s a reason to hypothesize that his level of function underwent an injury. There’s no indication as yet that he had a career crash which might result from a company you worked for blowing up or you being fired for cause or you being fired as a fall guy.
Well, about 99% of the media, Hollywood and academics are really upset that the gunman was unsuccessful in killing Trump.
And about 85% of all democrats are also disappointed. This assumes that the 15%
that are not disappointed only want to avoid a tit-for-tat climate of political assassinations in which they too will become targets.
he has had a meh work history considering he has an engineering degree
Yes, more likely an angry resentful misfit, like the Brown/MIT shooter who spiraled downward after an advanced degree, though Valente’s anger seemed directed more narrowly at academics.
Levin, not Levitt…..damn autocorrect
Folks who can’t gasp “cause and effect” get a lot of other people killed.
AesopFan: Just to save time tomorrow: the 72-hour rule for not believing anything the media says or prints will run until sometime Tuesday night.
A good way to not go crazy.
I can hardly believe it, but there’s a business in Wisconsin, the Minocqua Brewing Company, that has been advertising free beer for its customers if someone succeeds in assassinating President Trump. I looked at their web site; they sound reprehensible. Oh, and they were disappointed that this was another miss.
An engineering graduate from CalTech, now working as a tutor for SAT prep? Apparently his master’s in computer science hasn’t helped either.
Something has gone very wrong with his life.
Yikes… I am generally rather dismissive of much of the political discourse in recent years. Even when people on the right say, “Oh, this terrible rhetoric on the left is going to get people killed.” I tend not to pay much attention. I was wrong.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-shooting-live-updates-cole-tomas-allen-white-house-correspondents-dinner-b2965104.html
I hate to say it, but all the leftists/Ds I follow basically say the same sort of stuff as this guy, except they haven’t threatened to “do something about it”. But, they, this morning certainly sympathize with his attempt if they believe it’s real, otherwise claim it’s all a staged event by Trump. A huge portion of our population is sick.
From Mark Levin’s show last night, similar thoughts were happening pre CW. Our problem now is that social media amplifies and expands the sickness. Of course, THEY claim we are the mentally ill ones. We are heading towards some serious internal sh!t.
Bluegreen Kayak (10:43 am) said: “I can hardly believe it, but there’s a business in Wisconsin, the Minocqua Brewing Company, that has been advertising free beer for its customers if someone succeeds in assassinating President Trump.”
Here’s a link that supports Bluegreen Kayak’s report:
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2026/01/brewery-offering-free-beer-all-day-long-the-day-donald-trump-dies.html
Security
The shooter ” finds a unsecured room down the main hall, assembles his long rifle, runs out into the main hall and starts shooting.”
OK. So, security was a joke.
Our Cal Tech graduate is just another Commie Soy Boy who has no idea about tactics. What was he thinking he would accomplish? Why didn;’t he just shoot up a gun free zone Kindergarten to make grievance points? Thank goodness he couldn’t think outside the box very well. This could have been way worse.
The Democrat Party supports this 100%
It will be determined the shooter is a paranoid schizophrenic.That is consistent with his high IQ, education, his professional high-level start and then the occupational decline. Schizophrenia is a terrible disease, so often hitting the very able young adults. Incurable.
@physicsguy,
I believe Lincoln has the record for five assassination attempts, one before he was even inaugurated for the first time.
The whole thing seems odd to me: after all, Presidents have been speakers/guests at the WHCD for decades without any incidents. I’ve heard that security was more lax than it ever has been before: maybe that has something to do with it.
CNN reporting how the shooter MAY have been targeting Trump and other administration officials. You can’t hate these people enough.
The manifesto wasnt the clue
They are covering with a parachute,
Mind arson has a fatal impact
How many dog whistles does one need to listen about these people
I’ve written a new post on the subject here.
From a family photograph I saw it appears that our attempted assassin is mixed race, with a black – excuse me, Black – father, and white mother.
Of course, whenever a “person of color” is admitted to a prestigious institution, one has to wonder whether they were actually qualified or a DEI token.
Marisa:
Read the shooter’s manifesto. Read my discussion of the manifesto.
He alludes to being bi-racial, among other things. The manifesto also shows that he is quite intelligent.
I must revise my opinionated guess the shooter is schizophrenic, based on Neo’s recent post in which shooter is quoted at length. Quotes are articulate, to the point, and there is no derangement of cognitive function. He has arrived at false conclusions via media falsehoods in which our current young can be immersed very quickly.
@ physicsguy > “CNN reporting how the shooter MAY have been targeting Trump and other administration officials”
Babylon Bee post tagged: The headline says it all”
https://babylonbee.com/news/cnn-reports-loud-popping-noises-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner
@ BJ > “I’ve heard that security was more lax than it ever has been before: maybe that has something to do with it.”
I am only just catching up with news and comments.
Has anyone remarked on similarities to the Butler affair?
We all know how much Hollywood loves a sequel.
@ Sennacherib > “the first goal is to capture the public stage, if he gets Trump that’s a bonus.”
I don’t know why you alluded to Musk and X (some story I missed somewhere?), but with the assassination angle it looks more like the possibility of a Luigi Mangione wanna-be.
Aesop,
Language is critical to these people. The movement of X to Musk was a very serious blow to these people, in that vein Trump is an existential threat he must be silenced, either death or deplatform.
Allen the shooter was no gun neophyte. He posted, “I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed shit.”
In gunny land the Ma Deuce is nickname for the Army’s M-2, a tripod-mounted .50 caliber heavy machine gun, weighing 125 pounds, with a range of 2000 yards!
Not sure how he was going to physically move a M-2HB into the hotel. As you said it weighs 125 lbs and is more than 3 ft long. Would he be using a stealth wheelbarrow, or disguised on an electric mobility chair? They are called crew serviced weapons for a good reason.
Would he use a minkey to distract the Secret Service?
Best paid plans of Democrats (thankfully) go agley.
@AesopFan,
I haven’t heard anything linking the WHCD to the Butler attempt, but the latter was fishy too. The Secret Service should have secured the perimeter better: they shouldn’t need onlookers to tell them that someone was climbing on the roof with a rifle in hand. I’m sure more info will come out, and we will find WTH is going on…
Re: Butler assassination attempt
AesopFan, BJ:
It seems we already know more about Cole Allen than about Thomas Crooks, who in 2024 came within inch or so of killing Trump at Butler, PA.
Weird.
huxley:
I think the difference hinges on several things: Crooks died but Allen is alive, and in particular Allen wanted people to know why he did it and Crooks didn’t. Allen wrote a lengthy tract explaining; Crooks didn’t. Allen has a big social media presence; Crooks didn’t.
Also, the MSM didn’t write all that much about Crooks. But if you look, for example, at his Wiki page, there’s actually quite a bit of information about him.
I’m sure more info will come out, and we will find WTH is going on…
No offense, but I hope you are joking. Everyone was so busy congratulating the USSS on what a great and heroic job they did, there will be no reckoning over the huge lapses in security, either at the WHCD or in Butler. The only person who paid a price for the Butler failures (aside from the victims, of course) was Kim Cheatle, and that was only because she botched her Congressional testimony. No one will suffer any consequences for this. Everything is fine and dandy, they all did their jobs, or so we are told.
neo:
Maybe Crooks is a testament that one can still maintain privacy in the 21st C if one is solitary or paranoid enough.
I had imagined that the full resources of the DOJ could pry loose more info on Crooks WRT to the Trump shooting.
We still don’t know about the Las Vegas music festival shooter, Stephen Paddock, either.
Followed the link to Erika Kirk – I just couldn’t read through the whole thing because it is so heart-breaking to see how traumatized she is.
May she one day find peace in her life.