A reconstruction of the attack against Trump and his team: security breaches, gunfire, and a suspect with multiple targets

It was meant to be one of the great nights on the Washington calendar, the one in which, like every spring, political power and the press cross the threshold that separates them to celebrate the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the grand ballroom of the Hilton Hotel. And it ended up being a night to remember, but for unimaginable reasons. At 8:36 p.m. on Saturday, as Donald Trump was about to speak for the first time at a traditional event he had declined to attend four times, the sound of gunfire at a security checkpoint one floor above changed the course of the evening. At that moment, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from California, entered the annals of political violence in a country with more guns than citizens and which has seen four presidents killed in office.

Allen, a computer scientist and graduate of the prestigious California Institute of Technology, an amateur video game designer, and a teacher, according to his social media activity, tried to run through the event’s metal detector, as seen in a video released by authorities, surprising officers in attendance. He covered a distance of about 20 meters before being apprehended. Shots were fired, although it is unclear whether the suspect or the officers fired them. One of the officers was hit by a bullet, which was stopped by his bulletproof vest. He was discharged from the hospital that same night.

The suspect, who according to the FBI is not cooperating with authorities, was armed with a handgun, a shotgun and several knives to, as revealed hours later by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt —who called him a “depraved anti-Trump lunatic”on X—, kill Trump and as many senior officials in his Administration as possible.

The U.S. president didn’t wait for the conclusions of an ongoing investigation before saying on Sunday that it was “a religious thing” and a “strongly anti-Christian” bias that motivated Allen to travel the more than 4,000 kilometers separating Washington from Torrance, the town of 150,000 residents near Los Angeles where he lived. There, his neighbors were still in shock on Sunday, while the FBI went door-to-door questioning people and agents searched the suspect’s home.

The truth is that, when a text apparently written by the president surfaced minutes later, published by the tabloid New York Post, it became clear that another sentiment was at play: a visceral rejection of Trump’s policies. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he wrote, in what could be interpreted as a reference to the president of the United States. Its authenticity was not immediately verified by authorities, but it was by other American media outlets.

In it, he states that the targets of his attack are “Administration officials prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” He presents himself as “the friendly federal assassin,” as well as a “citizen of the United States,” “half white, half black,” and apologizes to his parents, colleagues, and students for lying to them about the reason for his trip to Washington. He also apologizes to everyone he encountered on that journey in case it might get them into trouble. He traveled by train and bus, according to investigators—unusual modes of transportation in a country with a public transportation system that leaves much to be desired. Such a trip takes just under three days, according to Google Maps.

He legally purchased the weapons in 2023 and 2025 and regularly practiced with them at a shooting range. He sent the text of his manifesto to family members, and, according to NBC, one of the recipients, a brother, alerted the Connecticut police shortly before the attack.

In that document, in addition to listing his targets—from which he excludes, for reasons that remain unclear, FBI Director Kash Patel—he focuses on those he did not intend to kill, such as the dinner guests. Allen also clarifies that he is acting on behalf of the victims of the current administration’s policies. “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, 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 behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” the suspect writes.

Initial findings from authorities, though not yet officially confirmed, also indicate that he checked into the hotel on Friday. This makes sense. The Hilton is heavily secured every year for a gala hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association, the professional organization for reporters who cover the president of the United States daily. That evening, entry is only permitted to hotel guests or those with a dinner ticket. Sources close to the investigation indicate that the gunman walked down the stairs to the location where he was apprehended.

He reached the security checkpoint, which wasn’t located at either of the hotel’s entrances, but rather in the Hilton’s basement. He couldn’t get through. A couple of hours after he was safely evacuated from the scene by the Secret Service, Trump posted a photo of the incident showing the man face down on the ground, shirtless.

It’s next to a staircase. He still had to go down one more floor and enter a hall that has a reputation in Washington as the largest in the city. Some 2,300 people attend the celebration every year. This time, the gala had the added intrigue of seeing Trump participate in a tradition established in defense of the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech. It was more than just a novelty, since he is the president who has attacked the media more than any other in modern American history.

Besides Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and several Cabinet members were in the room, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr., as well as Vice President J.D. Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Given that the latter two are second and third in the line of succession should anything happen to the commander-in-chief, doubts about the organization of the event intensified on Sunday. In the hours following an incident that was broadcast live on television, conspiracy theories claiming that it was a “setup” gained traction on the internet.

The actions of the Secret Service

Videos of the incident show Secret Service agents taking several seconds to reach the presidential table where Trump was watching a trick by Oz Pearlman, the illusionist the organizers had invited instead of the traditional stand-up comedian—apparently to avoid upsetting the guest of honor. They then escorted him from the hall. The president explained this Sunday in an interview on 60 Minutes that if they took longer to remove him than, for example, J.D. Vance, it was because he wanted to stay and see what had really happened.

Trump has been the target of two other assassination attempts. The most serious one occurred on July 13, 2024, when he was holding an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In what can only be described as a disastrous chain of errors by the Secret Service, a young man named Thomas Allen Crooks climbed onto a nearby rooftop and was able to calmly aim at the then-candidate. He fired eight shots with a rifle before agents killed him. One of those bullets grazed Trump’s right ear.

The second attempt occurred 64 days later at a golf course owned by Trump in Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh hid in the brush for 12 hours before an agent discovered him. He had a plan, which he had been developing for months, to shoot the candidate from a distance of about 400 meters. Routh is now serving a life sentence.

True to his particular and recurring obsessions, Saturday’s attack proves one thing above all else for Trump: the need to build a gigantic ballroom on the site where the East Wing of the White House once stood, now demolished by its occupant without permission. According to him, such an attack would never have happened inside the Ballroom.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is being rescheduled and will be held “within 30 days,” according to authorities.

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