Cole Tomas Allen traveled from California to Washington with multiple firearms, multiple knives, and a ranked list of Trump administration targets he intended to work through in order. He made it to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner before he was stopped.
Trump was evacuated from the venue Saturday night. No one was killed.
Allen had bought his guns legally. He kept them at his parents’ house, reportedly without telling them, and drove east.
Before he left, he wrote a manifesto. He shared it with family. In it, he described himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and laid out a kill list of Trump officials, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest, the Los Angeles Times reported.
His brother, who lives in Connecticut, read it and called the cops.
That tip, investigators believe, may have been what got authorities moving before Allen could carry out the attack.
Trump told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell that he sat down and read the manifesto himself.
“I read a manifesto. He says he’s radicalized,” Trump said. “He was a Christian, a believer, and then he became an anti-Christian. And he had a lot of change. He’s been going through a lot based on what he wrote.”
On the family’s reaction, Trump said this: “His brother complained about him, and I think … reported him to the police. His family was very concerned. He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
Video and photos from inside the dinner showed Trump sitting at the head table with something close to a normal expression as the scene unfolded around him. In a “60 Minutes” interview the next morning, he explained his mindset.
“I wasn’t worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Wait a minute. Let me see what’s going on.’ Then they said, ‘Please go down,’ and I dropped to the floor.”
It’s the third time someone has tried to kill him. The first was Butler, Pennsylvania, July 2024, where a rifle round grazed his ear. There was a second attempt before November.
The WHCD is an annual black-tie press event. It’s held at the Washington Hilton. Reporters, editors, politicians, and celebrities attend. The president customarily speaks.
Saturday’s shooting pulled statements from people who had spent months comparing Trump to fascists. Barack Obama called for Americans to “reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.” Bruce Springsteen, who stood onstage at a “No Kings” rally weeks ago defending the comparison of ICE agents to Nazis, sent “prayers of thanks” that Trump survived.
