{"id":65213,"date":"2026-04-26T18:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65213"},"modified":"2026-04-26T18:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:20:24","slug":"gunman-at-dc-press-dinner-appeared-to-target-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/26\/gunman-at-dc-press-dinner-appeared-to-target-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunman at DC press dinner appeared to target Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Saturday night, April 25, 2026, an armed man attempted to attack the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner<\/strong> at the Washington Hilton. The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen<\/strong>, 31, of Torrance, California, reportedly intended to target President Trump and members of his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the key details regarding the incident:<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Incident<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • The Attack:<\/strong> Around 8:36 p.m., Allen allegedly charged a security checkpoint one floor above the main ballroom. He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Shots Fired:<\/strong> Witnesses reported hearing between five and eight gunshots. One Secret Service agent was struck in their ballistic vest; fortunately, the agent was not seriously injured.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Evacuation:<\/strong> Secret Service agents rushed President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump off the stage and out of the hotel. Other attendees, including Vice President J.D. Vance and high-profile journalists, took cover under tables until the area was secured.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The Suspect and Motive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Background:<\/strong> Cole Allen is a former teacher and video game developer from California. He had reportedly checked into the Washington Hilton as a guest on Friday, which allowed him to bypass the outermost security perimeter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The “Manifesto”:<\/strong> Authorities recovered a written document in which Allen allegedly referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin.” Federal officials stated the writings and his social media history contained anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Legal Action:<\/strong> Allen was apprehended at the scene and is facing charges, including assault on a federal officer<\/strong> and using a firearm during a crime of violence<\/strong>. He is scheduled for arraignment in federal court on Monday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Current Status<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

      \n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

      President Trump addressed the nation from the White House later that night, describing the attacker as a “lone wolf” and a “very sick person.” While the dinner was canceled for the evening, WHCA President Weijia Jiang stated the event would be rescheduled for a later date. Security at the Washington Hilton\u2014the same site where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981\u2014is currently under intense review by the Secret Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      On Saturday night, April 25, 2026, an armed man attempted to attack the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner at the Washington Hilton. The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"10719","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTE5LndlYnA_Zml0PTI3NSUyQzE4MyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikd1bm1hbiBhdCBEQyBwcmVzcyBkaW5uZXIgYXBwZWFyZWQgdG8gdGFyZ2V0IFRydW1wIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.ALdNo7urt5zlcGsjzpiE6KIBaXQB0MD_CtnYNKfXtbwMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xOS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiR3VubWFuIGF0IERDIHByZXNzIGRpbm5lciBhcHBlYXJlZCB0byB0YXJnZXQgVHJ1bXAiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.1LLsEA1gJQGtou3ppVkPlPMxSRr5bvNCBmM1z6v5DN8MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[10719],"tags":[14478],"class_list":["post-65213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump","tag-gunman-at-dc-press-dinner-appeared-to-target-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65217,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65213\/revisions\/65217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}