On Saturday, April 25, 2026, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner took place. This dinner has been held at the Washington Hillary in Washington, D.C. for over 50 years, always on the last Saturday of April, but this year’s ended abruptly after 31-year-old California resident Cole Tomas Allen attempted to storm the ballroom.
Gunfire was exchanged between the suspect and Secret Service agents.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) was created by journalists on February 25, 1914. The WHCA was created under President Wilson, when he threatened to “do away” with presidential news conferences after complaining that a news station quoted remarks he considered “off the record.” The original objective of the dinner was to prevent Wilson from ending press conferences, but the first dinner wasn’t held until 1921 to inaugurate officers and heal the bonds between reporters and the White House. In 1924, Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend the Correspondents’ Dinner, and in 1981, it became an annual tradition for the sitting president to attend, though the streak ended in 2017 when President Donald Trump was the most notable absentee; he called the event too negative and “so boring.” This was Donald Trump’s first time attending the event as President. Another noticeable aspect of these Dinners is their comedic and roast tradition. The early dinners had music and satire, and the tradition of a featured comedian came to be with Mark Russell in 1983. The event began morphing into a “Washington’s Prom” red-carpet event, heavily featuring celebrities and media personalities, beginning in the late 1980s.
At 8:40 p.m. on Saturday, Cole Tomas Allen rushed through a security checkpoint near the ballroom with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. It was confirmed that Allen was targeting President Donald Trump with a potential assassination attempt. The President and the First Lady were evacuated off stage and unharmed while the attendees took cover underneath tables. All attendees were unharmed, but a Secret Service agent was shot in the chest, hitting his protective vest, and was minimally injured. Allen was not shot but was injured and was taken to Howard University Hospital to assess his injuries before being released on an attempted assassination charge. According to PBS News, “Trump told Fox News the shooter had a ‘manifesto’ that showed he is a ‘sick man’ and ‘hates Christians.’”
On social media, misinformation spread rapidly. Many people on X questioned if the shooting was a conspiracy or staged. Partial remarks were shared, altering the narrative and distorting the facts. PBS states, “Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said April 26 on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that the suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then Washington, D.C.” When asked if Allen was targeting the president himself, Blanche responded with, “We’re still looking into that. … But it does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president, but I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that.”
Many attendees have shared their personal thoughts on the night and their experiences. Many lawmakers and journalists were in shock after the night went violently, interrupting their first course. “We thought that some of the plates for the dinner fell, and next thing you know, we all went under the table screaming,” said Jamie Raskin, a Maryland congressman who was among the 2,000 attendees gathered to celebrate press freedom.
The CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said that he was “a few feet away” from the shooter. “The first thing that went through my mind: is he trying to shoot me?” Blitzer said in a CNN interview. “I don’t think he was trying to shoot me, but I was very close to him as the gunshots were fired, and he was very, very scary. But I’m OK now.” Another attendee estimated that they waited anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes before the Secret Service agents came to evacuate the black-tie attendees out of the event hall.
President Donald Trump has postponed the correspondents’ dinner, calling for a reschedule within a 30-day period or before May 25, 2026. Though there has been no confirmed date, the WHCA officials consider the 30-day period to be unrealistic.
