Trump Dinner Shooter

Protesters gathered outside the White House Correspondents’ dinner Saturday night, holding signs calling for President Donald Trump’s death moments before an alleged gunman reached a security area at the venue and opened fire.

Demonstrators assembled outside the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was being held, to protest the event and the Trump administration. Some signs included messages such as, “death to tyrants,” “death to all of them,” and “yes, they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell.”

The protesters were also heard chanting “shame,” while others held anti-war signs and waved Iranian and Palestinian flags. One demonstrator carried a mask depicting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s head.

As I’ve often written, Democrats are infernal masters at manipulating language, at making policies and ideas utterly destructive to our constitutional, representative republic, seem benign, even beneficial. To that end, they avoid identifying the true nature of our republic like vampires shun sunlight. Instead, they call America “our democracy,” which our system of government is manifestly not.

I explained this in June of 2024 in these pages in: “Our democracy” a tyranny of the majority. That’s a term well known to the Founders, who did not once include the word “democracy” in the Constitution.

 

Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution provides: 

 

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

 

DONALD Trump has relived the terrifying seconds a gunman stormed his glittering black-tie dinner – admitting he resisted Secret Service orders as chaos erupted around him.

In a gripping interview with 60 Minutes, the President described how he “wasn’t making it that easy” for agents as they scrambled to get him to safety during the shocking attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on,” Trump said of the moment gunfire shattered the glamorous evening.

He dashed past those checkpoints: Cole Allen, 31, sprinted as if he were running the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, nearly breaching the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. If he had gained access to the ballroom, he planned to kill Trump officials and the president himself—it was all in his manifesto. He also admitted his targets to the police. Cole was apprehended by police before he was able to enter the venue, which led to top government officials and President Trump being evacuated from the event.

How did this happen? Another close call is nearly as bad as the assassination attempt itself, so what’s going on? First, Allen was already a hotel guest, traveling from Torrance, California, to D.C. by train. He checked in on Friday. Second, as Fox News’ Bill Melugin pointed out, the security wasn’t as tight as one might expect, considering that key members of the presidential line of succession were in the room:

My thoughts on the security at the WHCD last night.

The first exterior security for me was on the street outside of the hotel. I flashed my ticket and was waved through in one second. My name was not checked against any list, I showed no ID, I was not patted down and did not go…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 26, 2026

The suspect detained after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner is believed to have made it past the outermost layer of security at the event at which President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak because he was a guest of the hotel, officials said Saturday.

The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told the AP. Officials told reporters after the incident that Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.

Security for the annual event is always tight when the president attends, especially given the venue’s history — 45 years ago, the Washington Hilton was the site of an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan — and law enforcement argued that their “multi-layered protection” worked as designed.

Cole Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, attempted to assassinate President Trump and other government officials during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday. It’s a fact. It’s in his manifesto.

President Trump was at the event with Vice President JD Vance and other top officials when Allen sprinted past security checkpoints outside the ballroom. He was caught, but not before gunfire was exchanged. He wasn’t hit during the attack but was armed with multiple guns and knives.

“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen wrote. He confessed to the police early Sunday morning that his targets were Trump officials. His written work emphasizes that and includes the president on the list, not that we couldn’t infer that from the initial confession.

“What’s happening??”

It was Elizabeth Mitchell, the Daily Signal’s White House reporter. She was seated next to me at Saturday evening’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. There was urgency and confusion in her voice.

Our table was to the right of and somewhat back from the dais, where President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang of CBS News were seated, along with others.

Elizabeth was looking in that general direction. I was looking at my salad. I turned toward her as she spoke. In a split second, before I tried to see what was happening, I knew, or at least feared, that something was very, very wrong.

Forty-five years ago President Ronald Reagan was shot and nearly killed by a would-be assassin outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Forty-five years later President Donald Trump’s life was in danger from another would-be assassin at the same hotel.

Why?

Because the Secret Service failed Trump — again.

Authorities identified 31-year-old California resident Cole Allen as the man surveillance video shows rushing past a Secret Service checkpoint while reportedly armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives and heading toward the ballroom where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was taking place on Saturday evening. Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and several cabinet members were present. Allen was reportedly subdued by law enforcement after several shots rang out. Reports indicate the suspect was not struck by gunfire. Two sources told CBS News that the suspect admitted he was targeting members of the Trump administration.