Actually, security last night was terrible – plus, the shooter’s manifesto is exactly what you might expect
I titled last night’s post, “I guess the security was effective at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” That was an initial response to the fact that no one was killed – not even the shooter, who was taken down alive and well. But of course, the earlier security had to have been abominable for anyone to get as far as would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen did.
And, since Allen helpfully sent his family a manifesto of sorts ten minutes before he started his attack, we have it straight from the horse’s mouth, if this document is authentic (and I have no reason to believe it’s not). The relevant excerpt:
Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone.
Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.
What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing.
No damn security.
Not in transport.
Not in the hotel.
Not in the event.
Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance.
I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.
The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.
Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.
Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed shit.
Actually insane.
Oh and if anyone is curious is how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.
Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.
Even before I read that, it had become crystal clear that although security was good at the very endpoint, it was disgraceful prior to that. As with earlier incidents such as Butler, it is hard to fathom what could explain such overwhelming negligence. Some say that security forces’ incompetence is purposeful and out of malice towards Trump, and although I do not think it’s that I can see why people would believe it.
That quote I gave comes at the end of the shooter’s document. There’s much much more earlier on, describing the reasons that he feels he must do this. I plan to write more on the subject either tonight or tomorrow. But right now I’ll just say that several things are apparent.
The first is that Allen is intelligent. The second is that he’s not at all crazy. The third is that his letter of explanation reads exactly like the sort of thing we see every day, many times over, on “X” or other social media – what has become almost garden-variety hatred of Trump and accusations that he is evil and does evil (pedophile, rapist, traitor). Sound familiar? It should; it’s commonplace commentary on MS NOW (once MSNBC) and other leftist stations and talk shows, in the halls of academe, in social gatherings, and on the aforementioned social media. I know many perfectly ordinary people who are probably nodding along now with what Allen wrote, wishing he had succeeded. I predict he will become a hero to millions, just as Mangione has but even more – except for the fact that Allen was unsuccessful. But the effort will be applauded.
I hold Allen responsible for his actions. But it is tragic and outrageous that he has been fed propaganda so relentless and so vile that he felt that what he was planning to do was something noble and good: taking out the evil empire of Trump. His targets seem to have been the whole administration.
He also says something quite prescient:
Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who *aren’t*
One Secret Service agent was hit in the chest but was wearing body armor and will survive.
NOTE: Here is a critique of the abominable security measures. I think the average child could have designed something better. It is mindboggling.
ADDENDUM: Some history:
On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton hotel.
Same hotel 45 years earlier. Reagan was very seriously wounded but survived after surgery. Another big difference, however, was that although there was plenty of hatred towards Reagan, that’s not what motivated Hinckley, who was actually fairly crazy and shot Reagan because Hinckley had become convinced that assassinating a huge public figure would impress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed. Earlier, Hinckley had considered killing President Carter.
As at Butler, the folks on the sharp end did their duty, best they could, althogh some of their steps were faulted by the usual Monday-morning crowd
What is extraordinarily informative–if in a negative way–is the endless number of ways supervision answered without answering how the shooter got that far. Something a sixth-grader Safety Patrol person would have spotted was…..endlessly bafflegabbed to no end.
The hearings were a lesson in answering questions not asked, as if we needed such lessons after watching Fauci.
And nobody swept the golf course in Florida in all those hours the snniper was waiting?
It’s not that, in retrospect, these things would have been a good idea. It’s that they’re written into procedures and then…ignored.
And among other things, the guys at the sharp end might be wondering if their bosses might be betraying them.
I read the whole thing at the link.
That’s not much of a “manifesto.”
I really don’t understand the criticism.
If you are going to have public events, then there must be some accommodation for the public.
For instance, I would not expect the luggage of hotel guests to be searched for hand guns, or broken apart long guns.
A security perimeter must of necessity be finite. There simply are not enough resources for it to be otherwise; and life must go on, even if severely inconvenienced, around the periphery of the perimeter.
The target area was clearly secure, and was not breached.
One thing I am curious about, is whether shots were actually fired by the SS and other security personnel without hitting the Perp. I would hope that they are competent shooters. Maybe that will be answered in due time.
A few years ago, we went to Washington, DC, for a three-day visit. Staying at the Mayflower, we had to go through a metal detector and put our bags on a belt for screening, and even opened for looking, every time we went into the hotel, just like staying at a hotel in the Middle East or Turkey. We were surprised until a look at the news indicated Netanyahu was in town, and evidently staying at the Mayflower.
Along with this shooter, I am surprised the Hilton was not like this for at least 24 hours before the dinner.
This guy is not crazy, unless we count all the falsehoods that relentless leftist media and social media have drummed into his head.
Side note: Why was Patel to be excluded from the list of high-ranking officials he wanted to target?
Yes, they should screen all guests coming into the hotel for at least a week prior to such an event. But do you really think that the uproar of such measures would be such that it could not be done. If it was a Trump event, like last night, the Left would go bananas. Day before and day of would have helped, but a determined person can cause a lot of damage.
I have watched the video, well at least one of them, and could not tell what the deranged person was carrying when he shot the Agent. The agent was clearly hit, doubled over, but still reacted quickly, pulling his service weapon and going after the shooter.
A few days ago I was talking with a lady whose house I’m painting. Nice older couple. They do volunteer work. She tutors children, he volunteers at Hospices. Both Christians. Moved to Texas from the east coast.
Yet the TDS is strong there.
I think it’s the media that has warped their perceptions.
SHIREHOME:
I don’t suggest screening all guests. The solution is to set up a wider perimeter within the hotel that is emptied prior to the event and doesn’t have just one checkpoint, but a series of them.
There probably are other ways to handle it, but that one came to mind almost immediately. This event had all the movers and shakers in one place.
But as far as screening guests goes – not all that long after 9/11 I stayed in a hotel maybe in Boston or NY and you could not enter the hotel without going through a metal detector each time you went out and came back.
How many wake up calls does the Secret Service need? Looks like a systemic failure, again.
Time for a systemic root cause analysis of the entire SS decision process, including counter-espionage and personnel reliability (who is compromised?).
Budgeting by continuing resolution (and the non-cooperation of the opposition in financing DHS components) may have played a role. One might also consider that the Secret Service has been damaged by DEI and also by the mission to protect the Bidens.
This person will be a national hero to the left and will spark more violence going forward, based on his “manifesto”.
Yes, the security planning was terrible but what about Allen’s planning? We have all seen the video of his mad dash from the left through the checkpoint. Did he really think that he would be able to run through the security into the ballroom to attack the President? This seems more a case of suicide by cop to make himself famous than a serious attempt to carry out the assassination.
Bob Wilson:
Perhaps he was wearing a protective vest. Perhaps he watched too many movies. Perhaps he wanted martyrdom. But he certainly might have made it into the room; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. And he didn’t need to kill Trump – it was a very target-rich environment.
Brian E:
I definitely agree He also happens to be good-looking, like Mangione.
I keep seeing statements by officials saying we don’t know the motive. Have they not read what he wrote, or do they lack reading comprehension?
I asked grok what the distance was from the checkpoint Allen ran past to the ballroom entrance. The answer is below. It is pretty clear to me that this was just a publicity stunt. He did not have a reasonable chance of getting into the ballroom and attacking the guests.
Grok answer
Recent Incident Details (April 25-26, 2026 WHCD)
A security incident occurred just outside the ballroom area during the event (with President Trump and others in attendance). Reports describe the security checkpoint as located in the hotel lobby/terrace level area (one floor above the ballroom), with the suspect rushing toward it before being stopped.
• The suspect sprinted approximately 60 feet past the Secret Service checkpoint (through a magnetometer) and reached the top of a staircase leading down toward the ballroom, according to a Washington Post analysis of video, schematics, and testimony. He was apprehended before entering the ballroom itself.
• President Trump described the suspect as charging/starting his run from about 50 yards (150 feet) away, emphasizing that he remained “very far away from the room” and was intercepted at the checkpoint area outside it.
Re: Cole Allen as national hero to the left
I dunno. My bet is that such heroizing will be muted at best.
Not out of decency, but because higher-ups in the D Party and the Left might call a strategic pause to such blatant assassination celebration out of self-interest.
We’ll see.