Known in media circles as “nerd prom,” the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening was Donald Trump’s first as president. While past presidents had routinely attended, Mr. Trump, who has had a strained relationship with the news media, had previously boycotted the event.. But on Saturday (April 25), President Trump was ready to put on a show, calling it the “hottest ticket in town.”
Each year, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCD) hosts a dinner to celebrate press freedom and the First Amendment. Founded in 1914, the association represents nearly 1,000 journalists who cover the White House. The event draws hundreds of journalists, celebrities and politicians from both major parties. It has been held at the Washington Hilton for decades.
High-profile guests walked the red carpet and posed for photos, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and her husband, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and multiple cabinet members, along with business executives, lawmakers, and celebrities.
A few minutes into the dinner, which started at 8 p.m., leaders of the White House Correspondents’ Association stepped onstage at the front of the Washington Hilton ballroom. The event host introduced Trump (last attended in 2011, when he was a reality TV star) and First Lady Melania Trump, with the POTUS stationed next to the association’s president, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter.
A military band played and the room stood for the national anthem before a break for dinner. As guests took their first bites of salads in the humming ballroom, a 31-year-old man from Los Angeles approached. He picked up speed as he ran toward a Secret Service security checkpoint. Event host Oz Pearlman was entertaining the first lady on stage when guests heard shots fired outside the ballroom.
Trump initially thought a tray had been dropped on the floor, but his wife worried it sounded more serious. All hell broke loose when a Secret Service agent shouted “Shots Fired!”. The president was pulled off the stage by security officials but appeared to stumble as they moved him. A huddle of agents formed around Trump as he was removed. Vance was ushered away in the opposite direction.
Several armed law-enforcement agents with long guns and helmets stationed themselves on the stage as it was being cleared of guests. Agents spread out across the ballroom, standing on tables and holding their weapons. Cabinet secretaries were rushed out of the room. Attendees hid under tables and behind chairs. Wine spilled and serving trays clattered to the ground as people screamed and sobbed.
According to a security video posted by Mr. Trump afterward, law enforcement officials are seen chasing the suspect – identified as Cole Tomas Allen – as tuxedoed agents draw their guns and run toward the ballroom. The gunman exchanged gunfire with authorities before being brought under control by the Secret Service. However, he did not enter the ballroom.
Trump, the First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other top officials were escorted from the hotel around 9:45 p.m. At a White House later news conference later that night, Mr. Trump said that a Secret Service officer had been shot but was protected by a bulletproof vest. He was taken to a hospital. There were no other reported injuries, according to Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary.
Mr. Allen, the man two law enforcement officials said was the suspect taken into custody, was carrying multiple knives, a shotgun and a handgun, officials said. A resident of Torrance, California, a coastal town in the South Bay area adjacent to Los Angeles, he was a guest at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the annual dinner was taking place.
Facebook postings appearing to relate to Cole show that he was named “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024 by the Torrance office of C2 Education, a nationwide private test-preparation and tutoring service for college-bound students. A LinkedIn profile describes him as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth”.
The best part – he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the prestigious California Institute of Technology in 2017, and a master’s degree in computer science from California State University at Dominguez Hills in 2025, according to the profile. Caltech stated in a statement that a person of that name graduated in 2017.
He previously worked as a mechanical engineer for a company called IJK Controls in South Pasadena for a year, and before that, as a Caltech teaching assistant. The profile also includes a local newspaper article “on a robotics competition my team won” at Caltech in 2016. Authorities said they believe he acted alone but are investigating whether he was targeting the president.
But the shooting has raised security loopholes at the hotel. Attendees were able to access the Hilton’s lobby and lower levels without going through security scans, only passing through magnetometers as they entered the ballroom where the dinner was held. This is the same hotel where an attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan occurred and a common meeting place for world leaders and D.C.’s elite.
If the POTUS was the target of Tomas, then Trump may make it into the Guinness World Records as thepresident with the highest number of assassination attempts. Donald Trump has had attempts on his life before. In July, 2024, his ear was grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, PA. Months later, a federal agent fired on an armed man at Mr. Trump’s Florida golf club.
While no one was killed, the FBI and security officials continue to investigate the incident and how the man was able to get weapons so close to the event. Trump said the security services did a “much better job than Butler,” where he was the target of an assassination attempt in 2024 during a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania. However, some believe the entire shooting drama was staged by Trump.
Around 10:30 p.m., the president posted a photo on social media of the shooter – shirtless – face down on the hotel carpet with his hands cuffed behind his back and Secret Service standing around him. According to a Federal Election Commission record, Allen donated US$25 in October 2024 to the fundraising platform ActBlue, with the money earmarked for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Bin Tang, a computer science professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, told The Associated Press that Allen took a few of his classes before graduating. “He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the front row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft spoken, very polite, a good fellow. I am very shocked to see the news,” – Tang wrote in an email.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that the gunman travelled across the country before the event and is believed to have been targeting members of the Trump administration. The suspect is believed to have purchased the firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Blanche said officials believe the suspect traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where in recent days he checked in as a guest at the hotel where one of Washington’s glitziest events was being held Saturday night. Dylan Wakayama, who knew Allen because he tutored high school students who were members of the Asian American Civic Trust, said his impression of Allen was that he was intelligent, quiet, and nice.
Shortly before 10 p.m., most people had exited the ballroom, leaving behind a scene of a party interrupted. Tables were covered with partially eaten starter salads and half-eaten bread rolls. Some guests left with bottles of wine tucked under their arms. As guests trickled out late Saturday, a man waved a cardboard sign that read, “Death to All of Them.”
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April 26th, 2026 by financetwitter
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