A 31-year-old California man has been identified as the suspected gunman who triggered chaos at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night, forcing the evacuation of President Donald Trump and hundreds of high-profile guests from the Washington Hilton. Law enforcement has identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, with a background in engineering and education. Federal prosecutors say Allen has already been charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro adding that “many more charges” will be leveled at the man as the investigation continues. Authorities say Allen forced his way through a security checkpoint just outside the ballroom where the annual dinner was underway Saturday night. The event, attended by roughly 2,000–2,500 guests including cabinet officials, journalists, and the First Lady, quickly descended into panic as Secret Service agents engaged the suspect. “A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service,” Trump said shortly after the incident, later describing the attacker as a “would-be assassin.” According to CBS News, Allen opened fire outside the ballroom where the president and other officials were gathered, discharging between five and eight rounds during the incident. The president and First Lady Melania Trump were safely evacuated, and no attendees suffered serious injuries. At least one Secret Service agent was struck by gunfire but was protected by a ballistic vest and is expected to recover. Officials say the suspect was subdued at the scene and taken into custody without being fatally wounded. Investigators say Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. Washington, D.C., interim police chief Jeff Carroll confirmed the suspect was believed to have been staying at the hotel, giving him a potential pathway past earlier layers of security. “At this point, it does appear he is a lone actor, a lone gunman,” Carroll said, noting the investigation remains ongoing. Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the response, emphasizing that the layered security posture functioned as intended in stopping the attacker before he could reach the main event space. Still, the breach is likely to prompt renewed scrutiny of security protocols at major political gatherings, particularly given the high-profile nature of the correspondents’ dinner. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “It appears he purchased these firearms the past couple years. We don’t know how those firearms ended up in his possession in D.C.” Federal agents were seen conducting a search of his Torrance residence late Saturday night as part of the ongoing investigation. Allen’s background adds another layer to the story. According to law enforcement sources, he earned a mechanical engineering degree from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 and later completed a master’s degree in computer science at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He was working as an instructor with C2 Education, a national tutoring and test preparation firm, and had been recognized internally as “Teacher of the Month” in late 2024. Federal Election Commission records also show a $25 donation from an individual matching his profile to ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform, in October 2024. Authorities have also confirmed that Allen’s social media footprint included “anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric,” and he’d shared posts on leftwing site Bluesky calling for Trump to be “immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes.” Law enforcement confirmed to CBS that Cole Allen’s social media contained “anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric.” pic.twitter.com/oTpT3vEjnr — Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) April 26, 2026 Despite the emerging personal details, authorities have not established a definitive motive. Blanche said investigators believe Allen was targeting members of the Trump administration, though not any specific individual. “He was trying to just breach his way in and take whoever he could,” one law enforcement source said. Trump, for his part, downplayed any connection to ongoing geopolitical tensions, saying he did not believe the attack was linked to the U.S.-Israel conflict involving Iran. The incident is the latest in a series of threats and attempted attacks targeting the president in recent years, underscoring persistent security concerns around major political events. Officials were quick to emphasize that the system ultimately worked, with the suspect stopped before reaching his intended target area. Allen remains in federal custody and is expected to be arraigned in the coming days. Investigators continue to examine his movements, communications, and potential planning in the lead-up to the attack as authorities work to determine how the breach occurred and whether any warning signs were missed.

I attended White House Correspondents’ Dinner receptions at the Washington Hilton and never had to go through security to get there. It is no surprise that a gunman was able to get as far as he did. Walking up to the Hilton, security outside the front entrance asked to see tickets before reaching the hotel’s circular driveway and main entrance. A ticket was required for entry, whether to the official dinner or any associated reception hosted by outlets such as Fox News, POLITICO, or CBS. I was invited to a reception, and didn’t have a ticket to the official dinner. But once inside the lobby, attendees roamed freely. Escalators led down to the red carpet area, the International Ballroom where the dinner took place, and smaller ballrooms hosting numerous receptions. Only the main ballroom was secured by metal detectors. All I showed to get into the hotel was an email with my reception ticket on my phone. It would have been easy to forward the email to someone else. No one inspected it closely — they only glanced at the graphic. I carried a purse on my shoulder that was never checked, and I was never screened through any metal detector. I stood shoulder to shoulder with officials and VIPs, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Stephen Miller, Karoline Leavitt, and Erika Kirk, without ever being screened. Once inside the Hilton, I never showed my ticket again. Security and law enforcement were present throughout the hotel, and protestors or disgruntled journalists were escorted out during the night. Yet every person entering the building, where the president, vice president, cabinet members, and other senior officials were present, just levels below, should have been thoroughly screened. Hotel guests should never have had unrestricted access. That lack of basic checks left an immediate sense of exposure that many commented on even hours before the shooting. Moving through packed crowds with nothing more than a quick glance at a phone screen made the vulnerability feel obvious, especially with high-level figures standing right beside me. The shooter, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, California, was reportedly a registered guest at the Washington Hilton. This gave him initial access to the building and lobby areas. The Hilton maintains the longstanding practice of keeping public spaces and guest areas open during the event, with full screening limited to the magnetometer checkpoint outside the International Ballroom. Allen, armed with a shotgun, handgun, and multiple knives, reached that checkpoint and opened fire. One Secret Service agent was struck but protected by a ballistic vest. President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and cabinet members were evacuated. The dinner was disrupted. Video released by President Trump shows the gunman advancing through the checkpoint as agents responded. Some have noted that the final checkpoint ultimately stopped the gunman from entering the ballroom. But this misses the central failure: He should never have been allowed that deep into the Hilton. Armed as he was, he could have opened fire much earlier — in the lobby, on the escalators, or inside any of the crowded pre-dinner receptions. The last security layer should not have been the only meaningful barrier. This incident resulted from two policy shortcomings. The Hilton has hosted the WHCD for decades, attracting the president and top officials, yet it has continued to have minimal outer-perimeter controls. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has been operating under a partial shutdown for more than 70 days since February 14 due to congressional disputes over immigration enforcement. Secret Service personnel have worked with constrained resources amid record threat levels. Venues hosting the president and other protected officials require layered security starting at the outer perimeter. Critical protective agencies like the Secret Service must have stable, full funding to maintain effectiveness. The arrangements at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night fell far short of those basic standards. Trump praised the Secret Service response and says the dinner will be rescheduled. It should be held somewhere else. *** Bethany Miller is the director of communications at NRB, managing editor of The Conservateur, and a senior fellow at Concerned Women for America.

WASHINGTON—Steve Schmidt, a leading anti-Trump activist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project, blamed President Donald Trump for “poisoning the rhetoric in America” minutes after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The Daily Wire approached Schmidt at Substack’s New Media Party, an alternative to the Correspondents’ Dinner held around the corner from the White House. Moments before, Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old engineer from California, opened fire at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where President Trump and senior government officials were gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Immediately after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Lincoln Project co-founder @SteveSchmidtSES blamed President Trump for “poisoning the rhetoric” in America: “He is a vile and disgusting man.” pic.twitter.com/dUG2XrcCDl — Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 26, 2026 Asked for his reaction to the shooting, Schmidt initially said “Pretty terrible. Don’t know a lot of details yet.” The Daily Wire then asked Schmidt if the protesters outside the dinner, and the prominent commentators urging attendees to somehow disrupt the event, bore any responsibility for inspiring the shooter. “No,” Schmidt deadpanned. The Daily Wire then reminded Schmidt about the two prior attempts on Trump’s life, including the 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a would-be assassin struck Trump and killed a bystander. Schmidt blamed the victim. “There’s one person beyond and above all others who’s responsible for poisoning the rhetoric in America, and that guy’s name is Donald Trump,” Schmidt said. WATCH: STEVE SCHMIDT CALLS TRUMP “VILE AND DISGUSTING” MOMENTS AFTER SHOOTING Asked if he was blaming the president for the repeated attempts on his life, Schmidt said no — and then resumed criticizing the president. “He’s a poisonous, venomous man,” Schmidt said. “He’s an insurrectionist, the foremost domestic enemy of the Constitution in American history. He is a vile and disgusting man, a convicted sex predator, and likely a pedophile. And tragically, he’s President of the United States, so we’ll have to endure through it.” Schmidt, a former Republican political operative best known for his work on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, has a history of making controversial statements shortly after presidential assassination attempts. Just two days after the Butler shooting, Schmidt penned a column in which he compared the Republican National Convention to a Nazi rally in which he said that Trump, like his would-be assassin, was driven by “violence and a hatred for democracy.” Schmidt founded The Lincoln Project with fellow anti-Trump Republican staffers Rick Wilson and John Weaver in 2019. Schmidt left the group in 2021 in the wake of revelations that Weaver had preyed on numerous young men, including one as young as 14. The Lincoln Project enjoyed a brief moment of celebrity among Trump critics, but was quickly marred by scandal. Staffers left the group en masse following the reports on Weaver, and The Lincoln Project reportedly spent most of the money it raised on consultants. In 2022, Schmidt’s ex-wife petitioned a court to force him to pay her $100,000 she claimed she was owed. Angela Schmidt also petitioned a court for a restraining order against the MS NOW contributor, who on Saturday evening was wearing a bright navy suit to a black tie event.

For the ninety seconds when members of the media were diving under tables at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, watching as politicians and cabinet members were yanked from the room by security, you have to wonder how many had the honest thought: did we do this? The repeated media normalization of assassination fantasies on the American left hasn’t been a quiet trend. A decade after Kathy Griffin posed with Donald Trump’s severed head, their attitude is the same as Steve Schmidt’s in the immediate aftermath of this latest attempt: to the extent anyone is to blame for repeated attempts at Trump’s assassination, it’s the man himself — and then maybe his supporters for having the audacity to elect Orange Hitler twice. Remember the Rutgers study that found more than half of Left-of-center respondents said it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Donald Trump? When the “radical Left” describes such a vast portion of the Democratic electorate on the question “should the president be unalived,” believe them. The legacy media has declared who they want dead. They continue to platform the Left’s voices who urge his death. They rely on the violent Left’s bark being worse than their bite — even as those who bay for blood continually show their eagerness for the exact outcome that motivates the president’s would-be murderers. Hasan Piker’s call to murder capitalists and drench the streets with their blood gets the New York Times and Conde Nast imprimatur. “Your cool murderous communist message is such a song of the summer vibe, tell me more, lol.” That casual endorsement of bloodshed isn’t fringe — it’s increasingly mainstream by the same people who claim democracy dies in darkness. Well, it almost died in the sun in Butler and West Palm and the bowels of the Washington Hilton. How many more cracks does the media want their psychotic fellow travelers to take at this? How long will they stand by Senate Democrats who have blocked security funding in the midst of war and blatant terror threats? Or should we just get used to a political reality where we refuse to treat violent rhetoric as the incitement it is? The WHCD attack was not an isolated incident of random violence. It was the predictable outcome of years of rhetoric, glorified in newsrooms, popularized on campuses, featured on podcasts, and given serious, intoned consideration in the pages of glossy magazines by the same people who claim to be standing against hate. The Left’s open celebration of political murder did this, and it will continue to do it, fueled by a legacy media that knows a click is a click, no matter the motivation.

A night of celebration turned into a scene of terror early Sunday morning as a mass shooting on Bloomington, Indiana’s’s popular Kirkwood Avenue left nine people injured. The violence broke out just after midnight during the university’s famed “Little 500” weekend, a period that typically draws tens of thousands of visitors to the area. Billed as “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” the Little 500 is the largest collegiate bike race in the United States. Founded in 1951, it has become a defining cultural event for Indiana University and the Bloomington community. Modeled after the Indianapolis 500, the race features 33 teams of four riders competing relay-style on a quarter-mile cinder track at Bill Armstrong Stadium. To ensure a level playing field, all teams must use identical, single-speed “Little 500 bikes” provided by the IU Student Foundation (IUSF). These bikes have coaster brakes (no hand brakes) and no add-on accessories. The race gained international fame through the 1979 Academy Award-winning film Breaking Away, starring Dennis Quaid (in his breakout role), Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley, and which centers on a group of “Cutters” (local Bloomington residents) competing against fraternity teams. According to the Bloomington Police Department (BPD), officers were already stationed on the 400 block of East Kirkwood Avenue monitoring a large crowd when gunfire erupted at approximately 12:25 a.m. Witnesses described a festive atmosphere that disintegrated into “pure chaos” as dozens of shots sent revelers diving for cover and fleeing toward the Indiana University campus. While the investigation is in its preliminary stages, witnesses reported that the violence appeared to stem from a physical altercation. One witness recalled seeing two women fighting in the street shortly before one of them reached toward her leg, produced a firearm, and began shooting into the crowd. “I didn’t think too much of it at first,” the witness told local reporters. “I figured the police would get to it. But then I saw a girl … start firing. By then, I was already running the other way.” Emergency responders moved quickly to treat the wounded. BPD confirmed that nine individuals were transported to local hospitals: six by ambulance, one in a police squad car, and two via personal vehicles. One victim was located at a nearby gas station on West 17th Street with injuries linked to the Kirkwood shooting. Authorities noted that it is not yet clear how many victims suffered direct gunshot wounds versus injuries caused by ricocheting bullet fragments. Indiana University issued several “IU Notify” alerts throughout the night, urging students to shelter in place and lock their doors. Although the shooting occurred just one block from campus, university officials confirmed that no shots were fired on IU property. The shooting marks the second mass casualty event near a Big 10 campus in just eight days, following a shooting near the University of Iowa last week that left five wounded. As of Sunday morning, no suspects are in custody. The Bloomington Police Department, assisted by the Indiana State Police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, utilized drones and helicopters to document the scene and search for the shooter.