Gunfire erupted Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, where U.S. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and senior administration officials were attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, after a gunman identified by authorities as Cole Tomas Allen rushed a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
The incident began at about 8:35 p.m. ET, when guests at the annual dinner heard shots and ducked under tables, according to video from the scene. Moments later, Secret Service agents moved toward Trump and escorted him, the first lady and members of his Cabinet from the ballroom.
Moments of evacuation
(Video: X)
The suspect charged the checkpoint armed with a shotgun
(Video: Truth Social)
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll later said a sole gunman had rushed a Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel lobby.
Carroll said the suspect charged the checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. As he ran through the checkpoint, Secret Service agents intercepted him.
“We do know that law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the individual. ... The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire,” Carroll said. “Law enforcement ... they actually tackled him into the ground and handcuffed him.”
US President Donald Trump, after the shooting
(Video: White House)
Bowser said a Secret Service agent was injured and taken to a local hospital. The suspect was also transported to a hospital for evaluation.
Trump posted his first public comments at about 9:17 p.m., saying law enforcement "acted quickly and bravely." He wrote on Truth Social that "the shooter has been apprehended" and said he had recommended that the dinner continue.
About 20 minutes later, Trump posted again, saying law enforcement had asked him and others to leave the venue and that he was complying. He said the event would be rescheduled "within 30 days."
By about 10:30 p.m., Trump appeared at a hastily arranged White House press conference, still wearing his black-tie dinner jacket. He was joined at the lectern by Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Melania Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino were also in the briefing room.
Trump said he initially did not realize the sound was gunfire.
“Actually, it was totally shocking to me, and that never changes,” Trump said, appearing to refer to the assassination attempt against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a second incident on his golf course in Florida during the 2024 presidential campaign.
“I heard a noise, and sort of thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray going down many times,” he said. “There was a gun and some people really understood that quite quickly. Other people didn’t. I was watching to see what was happening, probably should have gotten down a little faster.
“Melania was very cognizant, I think, of what happened,” Trump said of his wife, who has been among the members of his family most concerned about security even before Trump faced assassination attempts. “I think she knew immediately. She was saying, ‘it’s a bad noise.’”
Trump had been seated at the head table inside the ballroom, speaking with Melania Trump and Weijia Jiang, the CBS News journalist who heads the White House Correspondents’ Association, when the shooting unfolded.
As the sound of gunfire rang out, Secret Service agents rushed to cover the president’s head and pushed him out of the room. Other agents moved through the banquet tables to extract Cabinet officials, while the gunman was apprehended in the lobby area outside the ballroom.
Trump said the suspect never got close to breaching the ballroom doors.
“He was a sick person, a very sick person,” Trump said. “He was running full blast, and they got him before he got any further. I was very far away, he wasn’t anywhere close to breaching the doors of the ballroom. My impression is he was a lone wolf wack job.”
Trump said it was too early to know whether the gunman had political motives or whether he had been spurred by the U.S. war against Iran. He said the suspect, who appeared shirtless and on the ground in an image Trump posted to social media, was from California and appeared to have acted alone.
Trump also said the gunman fired at a U.S. Secret Service agent, who was saved by his bulletproof vest. He said law enforcement officials were heading to the suspect’s apartment and praised the Secret Service, saying it had performed better than during the Butler rally shooting.
Asked why he believed he had repeatedly become a target of assassination attempts, Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.
“The people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after. They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much, because they like it that way.”
Trump later joked that he might not have run for president had Rubio, his former 2016 presidential rival and now secretary of state and national security adviser, warned him about the danger.
“It’s a dangerous profession,” Trump joked. “Nobody told me this was such a dangerous thing. If Marco would have told me, maybe I wouldn’t have run. I’ll take a pass.”
Still, he added, “It’s a dangerous profession but I don’t view it that way. I’m here to do a job.”
Officials said preliminary information suggested the suspect was a lone shooter. Around 11:13 p.m., Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters the suspect was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
The shooting abruptly halted one of Washington’s highest-profile annual events, which brings together journalists, politicians, administration officials and celebrities. Guests were allowed to leave the hotel but not re-enter as security forces secured the building and continued their investigation.