Another Trump Assassination Attempt
A gunman got off shots at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
WaPo (“Inside the chaotic correspondents’ dinner shooting: ‘Get down, get down!’“)
Plates clanged, glasses clinked, and at the front of the room sat President Donald Trump, making his long-awaited return to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday.
It was just after 8:30 p.m., in the basement of the Washington Hilton. The president was on stage, locked in conversation with CBS reporter Weijia Jiang; spread out in front of them were thousands of attendees, seated at more than 250 tables, as waiters cleared away their salads.
Then loud popping sounds were heard from the lobby. “I thought it was a tray going down,” Trump would say later.
For the third time in less than two years, Trump found himself under the threat of gunfire. Hundreds of people — table after table — dove to the floor, reporters huddling next to Trump officials and other dinner guests, some draped by white linen tablecloths, others pressed up against the ballroom’s walls.
“Get down, get down!” someone yelled out.
At the front of the room, Secret Service officers first rushed Vice President JD Vance off the stage, then Trump a few seconds later. Other officials in the line of succession, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, were quickly whisked away, too.
Law enforcement officials barked out instructions — “Clear a path! Clear a path!” — as they escorted Cabinet members and other senior Trump officials out of the ballroom. Some attendees were injured in the scramble; Harmeet Dhillon, a top Justice Department official, said her head was bruised as agents ran across tables and chairs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel and others gathered with security officials outside.
For minutes, chaos reigned in the ballroom. Some White House officials, who had been sitting at an elevated table overlooking the floor, said they were just as confused about what had just unfolded, even as they watched their colleagues quickly exit the room. Trump and Vance were taken to secure locations, the administration said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and White House Correspondents’ Association officials gave conflicting guidance — security officers instructing attendees in the lobby to promptly leave, while some media leaders encouraged reporters in the ballroom to stay, insisting that the dinner would go on.
“This is a crime scene,” said one Secret Service officer, telling attendees to keep walking out of the hotel and go a block across the street.
WaPo (“Officials identify suspect in White House correspondents’ dinner shooting“):
President Donald Trump said a “shooter has been apprehended” as he and other guests were evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. Officials identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. At a news conference at the White House, Trump described the gunman as a “lone wolf” and said he was “taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service.” One officer was shot but was protected by a vest, Trump said. “The vest did the job,” he added. The suspect, who officials said was not shot, was transported to Howard University Hospital, according to multiple people aware of the transfer.
“This is an isolated incident,” D.C. interim police chief Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference. The suspect, who was a guest at the hotel, was “armed with a shotgun,” a handgun and knives when he ran through a security checkpoint toward the ballroom where the dinner was taking place, Carroll said. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the suspect will be charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence, along with one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. He will be arraigned in court on Monday, she said.
Naturally, the President did not let a crisis go to waste.
WaPo (“Trump, allies use dinner shooting to press case for White House ballroom“):
President Donald Trump said Saturday night that the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner hours earlier highlighted the need for his planned White House ballroom — a project that has been mired in legal battles for months.
Trump described the venue of the correspondents’ dinner, the Washington Hilton, as “not a particularly secure building.”
“We need the ballroom,” he said, listing some of its security features, including bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” measures.
Even if the new ballroom were built, it’s not at all clear that a future White House correspondents’ dinner would be held there. The dinner is a private event, not a government function. That question, however, did not slow the chorus of conservative officials and right-wing commentators who seized on the shooting to argue for the $400 million project.
“Unfortunately, the First Lady and I had to be evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner alongside the President and the entire cabinet,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry posted on X, referring to his wife, Sharon. “This event is yet another reason that President Trump’s ballroom should be built!”
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) wrote: “We’d better never again hear a peep from anyone complaining about a White House ballroom.”
Conservative commentators Meghan McCain, Tom Fitton and Nick Adams all joined in the refrain for building the ballroom to ensure the safety of presidents and their guests.
Activist Chaya Raichik, who runs the Libs of TikTok social media accounts, made the case plainly: “THIS IS WHY WE NEED TRUMP’S BALLROOM.”
Trump’s invocation of the ballroom’s security bona fides has potential legal significance. For months, he has argued in federal court that security features included in the ballroom, as well as in the secure bunker underneath where it would be built, justify continued construction. Those features include bulletproof glass, drone-proof roofing, bomb shelters, hardened telecommunications, a secure HVAC system and “very major medical facilities,” Trump says.
And, naturally, the attempt fed into Trump’s vision of himself as a Great Man of History.
WaPo (“Trump says he sees shootings as a reflection of his impact“):
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he views his repeated brushes with violence as a sign of his historic significance and is determined not to let the dangers affect him.
[…]
“I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most … they’re the ones that they go after,” Trump told reporters at the White House soon after a shooting suspect was apprehended. “And I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”
Trump mentioned Abraham Lincoln, but not Ronald Reagan, who was injured in a shooting outside the same hotel in 1981.
Trump said he tries not to dwell on the occupational hazards of being president. His ear was wounded by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024. That September, a man set up a sniper’s nest outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was spotted by Secret Service agents; he was sentenced in February to life in prison.
“It’s a dangerous profession, but I don’t view it that way,” he said. “I’m here to do a job. As part of the job — it is a dangerous — I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that’s more dangerous. But I love the country, and I’m very proud.”
Trump joked that he might not have run had he known about the risk. But in all seriousness, he made clear he did not want the risk of violence to alter his or anyone else’s life. He was determined on Saturday to go on with the dinner, and when law enforcement said the event couldn’t continue because the venue had to be cleared, Trump said he wanted to reschedule within 30 days.
“We very much wanted to continue it, because I don’t like to let these sick people, these thugs, these horrible, horrible people change the fabric of our life,” Trump said.
The history of presidential assassinations and attempted assassinations is hard to parse. Lincoln was inarguably a great president. John Kennedy probably wasn’t, but he was certainly trying to do very important things. James Garfield was shot very early in his administration and was largely inconsequential. He was shot by a deranged man angered over not having been appointed ambassador to France. William McKinley was killed by an anarchist with unclear motivations. He’s largely forgotten—overshadowed by his successor Teddy Roosevelt—but was a significant foreign policy president. So far as we know, there was never an attempt on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Franklin Roosevelt; they were inarguably among our most important chief executives.
We don’t yet know enough about the motives of last night’s shooter to draw useful conclusions. Assuming Trump was the target, we can be happy he failed. Whatever one thinks about this presidency, he was duly elected by a plurality of American voters. He’s entitled to govern until the end of his term unless he’s removed by impeachment or other Constitutional means.
I edited the description of McKinley, to whom I gave too short shrift in the original version, in response to a correction from commenter @Moosebreath.
“James Garfield and William McKinley were both shot very early in their administrations and were largely inconsequential.”
Not wanting to quibble, but McKinley was shot early in his second term as President, and had a somewhat consequential first term, including the Spanish-American War.
@Moosebreath: Yes, fair enough.
https://outsidethebeltway.com/sundays-forum-283/#comment-3028761
https://outsidethebeltway.com/sundays-forum-283/#comment-3028766
Becca is absolutely correct, and the minions are already picking up the propaganda and running with it.
As I said – time will prove me right.
https://x.com/MeghanMcCain/status/2048218607243424207?s=20
If this shooting was staged does this mean that the agent who was shot is a crisis actor who agreed to be shot? Did he trust the shooter to hit his protective armor and not his head? Or was this some Hollywood special effects using props? Are the staff at the hospital the agent was taken to in on this ruse too? Help me understand how this all works.
“…shots at the White House Correspondents Dinner.”
Depends on your definition of “at.” According to reporting last night, the gunman would have still had to descend a staircase to the lower level, and then enter the event room, the entrance of which would have been heavily guarded.
When I happened to check cable news yesterday evening, it was being reported that officials had been removed from the dinner and guests had taken cover after “loud noises” were heard outside the room. That was later updated to “gunshots.”
“I really don’t care. Do U?”
BTW, Teddy Roosevelt was also shot, then gave a scheduled speech before getting the gunshot looked at. This happened while he wasn’t in office.
Given the alleged assassin seems to have a heavy STEM background, I wonder if there was a long conversation with Claude or ChatGPT which ended with him at this dinner.
Anyway, good thing that there’s not a long-term investment going on in automating STEM labor and putting very logical and rules-based people out of work. Or that there aren’t these cheap little flying things which can be engineered as weapons by the right person who might then have a shot at getting away.
To repeat myself from the Open Forum:
I have a hard time with the notion that a group of people who were too incompetent to figure out that the Strait of Hormuz was in play strategically, or who put tariffs on an island with no people on it could pull off a staged assassination attempt
@Gregory Lawrence Brown: since Miller and Co get a lot of their ideas and influence from movie super villains I could see it being stage managed. Doesn’t help that they immediately pivoted to the ballroom.
Regardless, the fact that “staged” was all over social media right after the incident goes to show the credibility of this admin continues to circle the drain.
Pretty funny how prescient Leavitt was when she said “shots would be fired” right before the event.
@Eusebio:
Assassination attempt is what this will be called, because it is a more historical shooting than the typical Gunplay in the USA. But, considering the event, the shooter was nuts if he thought he’d get anywhere near Trump or others in the line of succession.
@Kathy: TR even finished his speech after being shot.