Donald Trump escaped his third suspected assassination attempt unhurt after a gunman calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” opened fire during the prestigious White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
The US President and members of his administration are believed to have been the targets of Saturday night’s attack, Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The suspect, teacher and California Institute of Technology graduate Cole Tomas Allen, 31, stormed security in the lobby of the Washington Hilton armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
In a manifesto sent to family minutes earlier, Allen allegedly revealed he was trying to kill Trump administration officials, a US official told the New York Post.
President Trump said Allen was “a very troubled guy” who “hates Christians” after details of the manifesto emerged. But he insisted the shooting would not impact King Charles’ state visit, which will go ahead, saying: “He’s a great guy, and we look forward to it. He’s really a fantastic person and a tremendous representative, and he’s brave.
A Secret Service agent was shot, but was saved by his bulletproof vest, and Cole was captured before he entered the ballroom where Mr Trump was due to address more than 2,500 guests at the annual event.
The sound of gunfire sent attendees scrambling for cover under tables, while armed agents bundled the president and first lady, Melania Trump, to safety.
Dramatic footage captured the moment officers stormed the stage where the president was sitting with their guns drawn, before ushering him offstage.
The shooting comes after Mr Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, which saw a bullet graze his ear before a 20-year-old gunman was shot dead by security personnel.
Just over two months later, Secret Service agents spotted a man wielding a gun in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while he was on the course.
In dramatic scenes on Saturday, a magician recounted how he was “in the middle of performing for the president when the shooting unfolded at around 8.35pm.
Oz Pearlman, a mentalist who was a finalist on America’s Got Talent, described the incident as the “scariest moment of my life” as he thought it was a bomb about to go off or shots being fired.
“We laid on the ground, I was a couple feet away from President Trump, eyes locked with one another. It was likely the scariest moment of my life and I will never forget it,” he wrote in a post on Instagram.
Within an hour, President Trump had posted on Truth Social, confirming that a shooter had been apprehended and shared CCTV footage of the assailant running past security in the hotel’s lobby.
At 10.30pm (3.20am UK time), the president – still dressed in his tuxedo from the black tie dinner – addressed reporters at a late-night news conference at the White House, telling them the suspect was a “lone wolf whack job”.
The suspect, later named as Allen, was charged at around 11.13pm with using a firearm and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said he would appear in court on Monday but added “there will be many more charges”.
Allen allegedly sent the manifesto calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” about 10 minutes before launching the attack, according to the New York Post.
“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial,” Allen allegedly wrote in the document, which a relative provided to police, the reports said.
“I’m not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behaviour; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”
Laying out how he planned to execute his attack, he allegedly wrote: “In order to minimise casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls). I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
FBI agents were later seen searching a home in Torrance, California, linked to the teacher and video game developer.
He graduated from the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2017, before gaining a master’s degree in computer science from California State University at Dominguez Hills in 2025. He previously worked as a mechanical engineer for UK Controls in South Pasadena and as a teaching assistant at Caltech.
Serious questions have been raised about security at the annual press dinner, which Mr Trump was attending for the first time after boycotting previous years, and was held at the same hotel where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
AG Blanche said the suspect’s motive was still under investigation, but preliminary findings suggest he was targeting administration officials.
“It does appear that he, he did, in fact, have set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the President,” he told NBC News, adding that it’s believed he took a train from Los Angeles to Chicago to Washington, DC, before checking into the hotel hosting the dinner.
Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, said there are “certainly security problems” at the event, where there is only one security check for would-be attackers to breach.
He told the BBC’s Laura Kuennsberg all you have to do is “show your invitation card… to get into the building”. There is then a security checkpoint outside the ballroom with a metal detector and bag check, he added, and the hotel was full of guests who are not attending the event.
Congressman Mike Lawler said security at the event was “woefully insufficient”, adding that the suspect “shouldn’t have been anywhere in that vicinity to begin with”.
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Mr Trump argued that the shooting “would never have happened” at the ballroom he intends to build at the White House.
“It cannot be built fast enough,” Mr Trump said, as he blasted a federal lawsuit challenging the demolition of the White House’s east wing to make way for the $400million project.
King Charles contacted the president personally following the incident, which came a day before the monarch is due to arrive in Washington for a four-day state visit with Queen Camilla.
Buckingham Palace was in “discussions” with US officials over whether the shooting would impact their plans for the trip, which includes a banquet at the White House.
A spokesperson added: “His Majesty is being kept fully informed of developments and is greatly relieved to hear that the President, First Lady and all guests have been unharmed.”
Sir Keir Starmer also spoke with President Trump to express his relief that he and Melania – who is celebrating her 56th birthday on Sunday – were safe following the “shocking scenes”.
