2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting

On the evening of April 25, 2026, gunshots were fired near the main security screening area for the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and members of the Cabinet were evacuated by the Secret Service. It was the first White House Correspondents' Dinner that Trump had attended as a sitting president.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, who was arrested near the screening area outside the banquet hall. One officer was struck in a bullet-resistant vest and is expected to recover; no other injuries were reported. Officials said writings attributed to Allen criticized Trump administration policies, referred to himself as the "Friendly Federal Assassin", and suggested that he intended to target people connected to the administration. The attack is being investigated as politically motivated.

Journalists and commentators discussed the shooting in the context of recent political violence in the United States, including previous assassination attempts against Trump and threats or attacks involving other public officials and political figures.

The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) holds an annual dinner in Washington, D.C., traditionally attended by the sitting president, members of the press, and other dignitaries. The 2026 dinner, held at the Washington Hilton, was the first such event attended by Trump during his presidencies; he had declined to attend during his first term. The 2026 dinner featured mentalist Oz Pearlman as the celebrity performer. The event attracted approximately 2,600 attendees, including senior administration officials such as Vice President Vance, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin.

Security at the event was described by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe as "almost on the level of a national security event," given the concentration of senior government officials in one location. He said that a likely massive coordination between the Secret Service and partner agencies had been organized in advance. The Associated Press noted that the lobby of the Washington Hilton regularly remains open to other guests during the dinner, and that security and screening is typically located closer to the ballroom itself.

The Associated Press also noted Trump's contentious relationship with journalists; before the dinner, five hundred journalists had signed a petition urging the WHCA to oppose Trump's "efforts to trample freedom of the press". For her part, WHCA president Weijia Jiang said, "I don't think people realize how closely we are working with the White House". Among the protesters outside the event, one held a sign saying, "Journalism is dead." In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan at the entrance to the same hotel.

CCTV footage of the suspect entering the secure area near the ballroom

At approximately 8:34 p.m. EDT, the suspect was confronted by security near the main metal detector screening area of the Washington Hilton; dinner was being served inside the main ballroom. He ran past the security checkpoint and fired at least one shot. He was chased and subsequently apprehended. Several US Secret Service agents yelled "shots fired" inside the venue, according to pool reports.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who was outside the main ballroom at the time, reported being only a few feet away from the gunman when the shots were fired. Blitzer described the shooter as firing what appeared to be "a very serious weapon" at least six times before being tackled and taken to the ground by police. Blitzer was ushered to safety in a nearby restroom by officers. The Secret Service stopped the suspect from entering the ballroom and he was taken into custody at the scene. One law enforcement officer was struck in a bullet-resistant vest but is expected to recover. The gunman sustained a single knee injury from the tackle, for which he was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Trump, who had been seated at the head table on the stage as Oz Pearlman performed a trick for him, his wife, and Karoline Leavitt, was surrounded by Secret Service agents about ten seconds after the shots were fired. Once armed guards in tactical gear with rifles appeared on the dais and some other attendees, including Vance, had been evacuated, Trump was escorted off the stage, briefly falling in the process. Many of the roughly 2,600 attendees took cover under their tables. UFC CEO Dana White was present and claims to have ignored commands from authorities to "get down". White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino unsuccessfully attempted to start a "U-S-A!" chant as Trump was escorted out and others began filming inside the ballroom. First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Vance, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other cabinet members were also evacuated from the ballroom and moved to secure holding areas within the hotel. Several members of Congress were seen departing the event on foot, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).

Trump remained inside the hotel in a secure area while officials assessed the situation. He departed the Washington Hilton for the White House at approximately 9:45 p.m. EDT after law enforcement requested that all attendees leave the venue. One Secret Service agent said that the area was a crime scene. Among the attendees, Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, was escorted away in tears.

A suspect was taken into custody near the screening area outside of the banquet hall. Initial radio communications from Secret Service agents indicated the shooter was in custody. The FBI subsequently confirmed that a suspect was in custody but provided no further details. The United States Secret Service confirmed the incident in a statement, saying it was investigating a shooting incident near the main magnetometer screening area in coordination with the Metropolitan Police Department. The suspect was carrying a shotgun, handgun and knives. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who was present at the dinner during the shooting, stated that he will be preliminarily charged with two charges of "using a firearm during a crime of violence, and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon", but stated that other charges could be filed later. Interim Washington, D.C., police chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was taken to the hospital for a single knee injury despite not being hit by gunfire and that investigators believe he was staying at the hotel as a guest.

President Donald Trump posted a photo on Truth Social of the arrest of Cole Tomas Allen

While the FBI has not officially named the suspect, two law enforcement officials spoke to news agencies, and named him as Cole Tomas Allen (born April 11, 1995), a tutoring teacher, video game developer, and mechanical engineer from Torrance, California. Trump posted images on Truth Social of Allen after his arrest, lying face down on the ground shirtless, with his hands cuffed behind his back, and surrounded by Secret Service agents. The two law enforcement officers who spoke to news agencies, stated that Allen worked for C2 Education, a tutoring firm in Torrance, receiving a "Teacher of the Month" award from the company in December 2024.

Allen has lived in the Greater Los Angeles area throughout his entire life. CBS News reported that Allen has lived in "multiple residences across the Los Angeles area from November 2010 to March 2026", mostly in Torrance, but Allen "also had an address in the city of San Gabriel back when Allen worked at South Pasadena, California-based IJK Controls between early 2018 and late 2019". Officials also stated that in 2017, Allen earned a mechanical engineering degree at the California Institute of Technology while residing in Pasadena, and a master's in computer science at California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025. During his time at the California Institute of Technology on March 3, 2017, Allen was interviewed by KABC-TV demonstrating prototype wheelchair brakes during an "Aging into the Future" conference in Los Angeles. Social media posts attributed to the suspect also state that he is a teacher, as well as an amateur video game developer. According to Federal Election Commission records, Allen donated $25 to Democratic Party PAC ActBlue for Kamala Harris's presidential campaign in October 2024.

Family members who were interviewed by investigators said that Allen "made radical statements and that he constantly referenced a plan to do 'something' to fix the issues with today's world", that he was part of a group called "The Wide Awakes", attended No Kings protests in California, and would regularly go to a shooting range to train with firearms. Prior to the shooting, Allen's brother, residing in New London, Connecticut, notified the New London Police Department about the alleged manifesto that he sent to his family members. Secret Service agents also reportedly interviewed Allen's sister in Rockville, Maryland, saying that her brother's thinking on the current state of the world revolved partially around "politics, Christians, misandry, and racism". Following the incident, both FBI agents and the Torrance Police Department swarmed through Allen's Gramercy Avenue house in the Old Torrance neighborhood, including usages of tactical gear and armored vehicles. Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche replied that Allen boarded Amtrak and took two of their routes, the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago and the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, before checking in as a guest at the hotel.

A manifesto purported to be the suspect's read, in part:

I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. [...] Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.

The manifesto does not name Trump, but lists among its grievances the federal government's strikes on what it claimed were drug boats in the Pacific several months earlier. Also, the manifesto criticized the security at the hotel, saying: "what the hell is the Secret Service doing? … No damn security. Not in transport. Not in the hotel. Not in the event." CBS News noted that because the Washington Hilton was a "functioning hotel with numerous public spaces during the dinner", only the areas where the dinner took place were secured by the Secret Service.

President Trump addresses the press two hours after the shooting

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. EDT, WHCA president Weijia Jiang addressed the ballroom from the stage, announcing that the program would continue momentarily. At approximately 9:20 p.m. EDT, security personnel began clearing out the ballroom, effectively canceling the event for the evening. Jiang later announced from the stage that Trump planned to give a briefing from the White House and that the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days. Sources told CBS News that the suspect had told law enforcement he was trying to shoot officials from the Trump administration. The day after the shooting, the Department of Justice announced that "preliminary findings" suggested Trump was the intended target.

Other media galas planned for the same night in Washington, D.C., continued unabated, including events associated with Substack, MS NOW, and Time. Oz Pearlman, who had been entertaining Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner in the moments before the shooting, arrived at the MS NOW event feeling "shook up" but glad that the parties were going on.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla are expected to make a state visit to the United States between the 27th and 30th of April, which includes meeting both Trump and Melania. After the shooting, Buckingham Palace announced that the state visit will still go on as planned, but that the shooting incident has resulted in increased security, yet what adjustments have been made to the state visit because of the shooting has not been publicly announced.

Shortly after the incident, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we 'LET THE SHOW GO ON' but will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement." In a subsequent post, Trump wrote that law enforcement had requested all attendees leave and confirmed that the first lady, vice president, and all Cabinet members were "in perfect condition." He also stated the event would be rescheduled within 30 days and later held a press conference from the White House Briefing Room.

Trump later said the venue "was not a particularly secure building" and used it as support for the existence of the White House Ballroom. He also doubted any connection of the shooter with the 2026 Iran war and said it would not stop him from "winning the war in Iran".

Norah O'Donnell interviewed Trump the following day. When she read to him the manifesto's denunciation of "a pedophile, rapist, and traitor", Trump exclaimed, "Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody", prompting O'Donnell to ask, "Oh, do you think he was referring to you?"

The US Secret Service issued an official statement confirming the investigation and that all protectees were safe: "The U.S. Secret Service, in coordination with the Metropolitan Police Department, is investigating a shooting incident near the main magnetometer screening area at the White House Correspondents' dinner. The president and first lady are safe along [with] all protectees."

Anthony Albanese of Australia, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Mark Carney of Canada, Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic, Emmanuel Macron of France, Friedrich Merz of Germany, Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Narendra Modi of India, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Joseph Aoun of Lebanon, Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, Pedro Sánchez of Spain, Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria, Lai Ching-te of Taiwan, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, Charles III and Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela, and Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union condemned the shooting as an act of political violence, while also expressing relief that all attendees were safe.

El País's correspondent Iker Seisdedos described the shooting as a third attempt on Trump's life, after the 2024 assassination attempts in Pennsylvania and in Florida, and characterized it as "another sign of the increasingly tense atmosphere in the United States". Seisdedos placed the incident in the context of recent political violence in the United States, citing attacks or plots targeting figures such as Steve Scalise, Gretchen Whitmer, Brett Kavanaugh, Paul Pelosi, and Charlie Kirk. Luke Broadwater, White House correspondent for The New York Times, discussed the shooting in the context of security concerns and recent threats against Trump. David Smith, the Washington bureau chief for The Guardian, wrote that the incident reflected the prevalence of political violence in the United States, and noted that Trump himself had been criticized in the past for violent suggestions, such as purging the US of crime on "one really violent day".

Media and fact checkers reported that conspiracy theories and unsupported claims rapidly circulated following the shooting at the Correspondents' Dinner.

The main reported false narratives are:

• The "staged" narrative: claims that the entire event was faked for political gain. On Bluesky, many users posted "STAGED," echoing the response to the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024, whereas on X, others claimed that the shooting was staged to increase support for Trump's plan to build a new ballroom in the White House. Other reasons given for staging the shooting were Trump's low approval ratings, and his actions in the 2026 Iran War.

• Claims about the suspect: It has been alleged that the suspect's name was massively searched in Israel before the incident, and that the suspect had been seen wearing an Israel Defense Forces sweatshirt.

• 2026 in Washington, D.C.

• 2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators

• Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, occurred at the same hotel

• Congressional baseball shooting

• Security incidents involving Donald Trump

• White House Correspondents' Dinner, April 25, 2026, C-SPAN