President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed offstage and evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after shots were fired at the Washington Hilton ballroom on Saturday night.
The suspect, later reported to be 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was quickly taken into custody, and the rest of the dinner was postponed, with the WHCA and Trump saying it would be rescheduled within 30 days.
Speaking to members of the media in a press conference at the White House after the incident, Trump said that the suspect was “armed with multiple weapons” and charged through a security checkpoint, and an accompanying video of the incident was shared on the president’s Truth Social page. He also revealed that an officer was shot, but “saved by the fact that he was wearing a obviously very good bulletproof vest.”
“He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” Trump said. “I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great.”
The president went on to commend the response time from law enforcement officials.
“The response time was really incredible, and we’re going to reschedule. We’re gonna do it again, we’re not gonna let anybody take over our society; we’re not gonna cancel things because we can’t do that,” he said. “We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay, but it was protocol.”
Trump said that he had a “rough” speech ready for the dinner, but that the events of Saturday night will likely shift his remarks to be “probably very nice.”
“I am ready, willing and able, and I was all set to really rip it,” Trump said of his planned speech for the dinner, the first one he attended as president. “I’ll be very boring the next time, but we’re going to have a great event.”
When answering questions from reporters, Trump said that he believed the suspect acted alone. During a separate press briefing, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed the suspect is being charged with using a firearm and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and added there will likely be “many more charges” to come.
Trump also recounted the moment as it happened, explaining that he initially thought a tray had dropped. The president said it sounded “quite far away” but recalled that the first lady was “very cognizant” that it could have been a shooting.
Trump and the first lady were seated on the stage with the head of the White House Correspondents Association, CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, when loud sounds were heard inside the dinner. Secret Service agents rushed the stage and escorted Trump, the first lady, Vice President J.D. Vance and others on the dais to safety.
After roughly an hour of uncertainty about whether the dinner would continue and if Trump would return, as reporters mingled about the ballroom, Jiang announced that the rest of the event would be postponed and shared that law enforcement officials had ordered everyone to exit the premises.
A news executive on the scene shared details from inside the venue with The Hollywood Reporter. “We heard shots and people were huddled under the tables and threw themselves on the ground as soon as the shots rang out,” the exec said. “But the band kept playing. There was a lot of panic in one corner of the room, and it seemed like in other corners no one could hear what was going on. Some people here really want to get the hell out, but at the moment they are blocking everyone from leaving.”
The exec continued, “Everyone is on the phone right now but reception here is very spotty. There’s a pack of CNN reporters huddled around [CNN chief] Mark Thompson, all of them on their phones. It’s like controlled pandemonium.”
Trump’s attendance at this year’s dinner was highly anticipated as it was his first appearance at the annual event as president, though he attended multiple times before he was elected, most famously in 2011 when both then-President Barack Obama and featured entertainer Seth Meyers poked fun at him while he looked unamused. Some have said that this experience may have inspired Trump’s decision to first run for president in 2015.
Still Trump’s decision to attend was met with controversy as Dan Rather, the Society of Professional Journalists, and 350-plus other journalists and organizations signed a letter calling on the body to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
More to come.
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