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April 26, 2026, 3:00 a.m. ET
Live Updates: Trump Describes Gunman’s Attack at Washington Hotel
President Trump was rushed from the stage of a dinner hosted by the White House reporters’ association. Trump said a Secret Service agent was shot at but “saved” by his bulletproof vest. The F.B.I. said a suspect was in custody.
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Trump Safe After Shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
President Trump was at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at a Washington hotel when a gunman opened fire. He was unharmed.
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Salwan Georges for The New York Times
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Luke Broadwater
Michael M. Grynbaum
Shawn McCreesh
and
Tyler Pager
Here’s the latest.
President Trump was rushed from the stage after gunfire broke out in the hotel where the White House correspondents’ dinner was being held on Saturday night. At a White House news conference a couple of hours later, Mr. Trump
described an assailant
carrying multiple weapons charging a security checkpoint before being taken into custody.
The president said a Secret Service officer had been shot but was saved by his bulletproof vest. Mr. Trump said the motive of the attacker — whom he said was believed to be a “lone wolf” — was not immediately clear.
Two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the matter identified the man in custody as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif. Mr. Trump posted two images on Truth Social showing a man he said was the attacker being detained and told reporters that law enforcement officials were heading to the suspect’s apartment in California.
Mr. Trump also posted a brief surveillance video of a man running past the security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was being held. In the video, agents drew their guns and appeared to start firing.
Guests were about five minutes into the dinner hour when a commotion occurred toward the back of the ballroom, which Mr. Trump said had not been breached by the attacker. Mr. Trump said he initially thought the noise was a tray falling to the ground, and did not immediately dive for cover. “I was watching to see what was happening,” he said.
According to the White House press pool, a group of reporters who travel with the president, a member of the Secret Service shouted, “Shots fired,” and agents with guns drawn sprinted through the aisles to reach the president.
Hundreds of attendees dropped under their seats at their tables. Security officials with weapons drawn emerged on the dais as the president and the first lady, Melania Trump, were quickly escorted out.
Mr. Trump, who was
grazed by a bullet
in an assassination attempt during a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pa., and rushed to safety a few months later when a federal agent
fired on an armed man
at his Florida golf club, departed the hotel around 9:45 p.m.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Charges:
The suspect in the attack was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and with assault of a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. She said the suspect would be arraigned on Monday in federal court and that additional charges were expected.
Administration attendees:
Vice President JD Vance and many members of the president’s cabinet and senior staff were in attendance at the dinner. Among the attendees were Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary; Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary; Robert Kennedy Jr., the health secretary; Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary; Steven Cheung, the White House communications director; and Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I. Mr. Trump later wrote on social media, “The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition.”
Hotel’s history:
The Washington Hilton is the same hotel outside of which
John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan
in 1981.
Pooja Salhotra
contributed reporting.
Show more
April 26, 2026, 2:38 a.m. ET
Shawn Hubler
Reporting from Torrance
With the block outside the suspect’s Torrance, Calif., home taped off by local police and F.B.I. agents, crowds of suburban neighbors strained for a glimpse of the neat, two-story house as authorities awaited a search warrant. Aurelio Mattucci, a city councilman in Torrance, said local officials were told that the house had been occupied earlier in the evening, but that the occupants had either left or were refusing to open the door.
April 26, 2026, 1:23 a.m. ET
Shawn McCreesh
and
Tyler Pager
Shawn McCreesh and Tyler Pager are White House correspondents. They reported from inside the Washington Hilton and from President Trump’s news conference at the White House.
At the White House, Trump describes his mind-set after an evening of chaos.
Image
President Trump speaking in the White House briefing room on Saturday night.
Credit...
Salwan Georges for The New York Times
It was 10:31 p.m. on Saturday when President Trump walked into the White House briefing room, still dressed in his tuxedo and bow tie, to talk about what may have been yet another attempt on his life.
“Well, thank you very much,” he said. “That was
very
unexpected!”
Moments before he walked out, the president posted surveillance footage of a suspect making a mad dash through the cavernous halls of the Washington Hilton. That’s where Mr. Trump was attending the White House correspondents’ dinner when gunfire broke out at the hotel. Very little was clear about whatever had happened there, a mile and a half up the hill.
But the president wanted to talk about it.
“It’s always shocking when something like this happens,” he said, standing with the first lady, the vice president, the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the acting attorney general, the F.B.I. director and the press secretary — all still in their evening wear from the dinner.
But, really, he argued, the whole thing was just the latest example of why he needs to build his maximum-security, legally challenged ballroom at the White House.
“I didn’t want to say this,” he said, “but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure. It’s got — it’s drone proof, it’s bulletproof glass.”
And then he gave the first question of the night to Weijia Jiang, the CBS News correspondent and the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who had been seated next to him at the dinner before pandemonium broke out.
“Madam chairman,” he said, “I just want to say you did a fantastic job. What a beautiful evening.” (Mr. Trump does not usually speak this way to the reporters who cover him.)
She asked him what was going through his mind when he realized his life may have been in danger again. He told the tale: He was sitting with the first lady on his other side when he heard a noise he thought sounded familiar and nonthreatening. “I thought it was a tray going down,” he said. “I’ve heard that many times, and it was a pretty loud noise, and it was from quite far away.”
His wife was not so sure, he said.
“Melania was very cognizant, I think, of what happened,” he explained. “I think she knew immediately what happened. She was saying, ‘That’s a bad noise.’” She looked quite stoic behind him in the briefing room. The only word she spoke during the news conference was “No,” after being asked if she would like to say anything at all. The president said that it was “a rather traumatic experience for her.”
He described being “whisked away,” thanked law enforcement profusely and said “there wasn’t a whole lot of time to be thinking, because it was a matter of seconds before we were out the door.”
On the whole, Mr. Trump’s response from the podium late Saturday evening was remarkably zen from a man who has survived two assassination attempts, and whose wife was just ducking under a table while gun-toting agents bum-rushed the ballroom around them.
Who knows how or if the president’s mind-set, his rhetoric, his political instincts or his security apparatus may change in the coming days or weeks. Very little was revealed at the news conference about the suspect’s motivations.
Still, Mr. Trump kept downplaying any insinuation that this latest scare would alter how he goes about his life.
“I like not to think about it,” he said. “I lead a pretty normal life, considering, you know, it’s a dangerous life. I think I’m, I think I handle it as well — as well as it can be handled.”
He added: “To be honest with you, I’m not a basket case.”
All week long
he had been aiming screeds at the news outlets in the room, but now he was praising the reporters before him, complimenting their outfits, using a polite tone of voice and thanking them for their work.
“You’ve been very responsible in your coverage,” he said. “I will say I’ve been seeing what’s been out. You’ve been very responsible.”
This was definitely not the message he had planned to deliver to the media tonight. He said he was going to make what he called the “most inappropriate speech ever made,” and sounded a bit disappointed that he had been robbed of that opportunity. So disappointed, in fact, that he vowed the dinner would be rescheduled for some time in the next 30 days.
But then, he would need a rewrite — or at least that is what he said for now.
“I don’t know if I can ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight,” he said. “I think I’m going to be probably very nice. I’ll be very boring the next time, but we’re going to have a great event.”
Show more
The New York Times
April 26, 2026, 12:55 a.m. ET
Luke Broadwater
Reporting from Washington
Once again, a gunman gets perilously close to President Trump.
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Heavy security was evident at the White House on Saturday night.
Credit...
Salwan Georges for The New York Times
Once again, a gunman got perilously close to President Trump.
The storming of a security checkpoint on Saturday evening by an armed man at the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was the third time in three years that Mr. Trump had faced danger. During the 2024 campaign, he survived two assassination attempts, including a bullet grazing his ear in Butler, Pa.
In this case, the gunman rushed toward the ballroom where the president was dining with hundreds of journalists, government officials and guests, and drew fire from security forces before being taken into custody.
It is not yet known what the man’s motive was, but the outburst of violence is sure to revive questions about the scourge of political violence afflicting the United States, and about whether there is enough security around Mr. Trump, one of the most targeted presidents in history.
“It’s a dangerous profession,” Mr. Trump said afterward at the White House, referring to being a political leader. He compared his line of work to being a racecar driver or a bull rider, and said presidents were more likely to be shot at or killed.
“Nobody told me this was such a dangerous profession,” he said.
There were no metal detectors set up at the hotel’s entrances, and a secure perimeter was only established closer to the ballroom deeper inside the Washington Hilton. A security video posted by Mr. Trump showed the gunman sprinting past the security checkpoint before being captured short of the ballroom.
Mr. Trump said the incident underscored why he wanted to build a $400 million ballroom on White House grounds that he said would be equipped with the latest security features. That project is currently subject to litigation.
“It’s not a particularly secure building,” he said of the Hilton, before launching into a pitch for the necessity of his planned ballroom. “It’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom.”
On July 13, 2024, Mr. Trump became the first current or former U.S. president to face an assassination attempt since 1981, when
a bullet nicked his ear
while he was giving a speech in Butler.
The 20-year-old gunman was able to fire several shots at Mr. Trump before the Secret Service returned fire and killed the shooter. But the fact that he came so close to killing Mr. Trump prompted immediate demands for changes at the Secret Service. The agency’s competence was called into question.
Mr. Trump on Saturday praised the response by the Secret Service and other agencies, and credited the counter-sniper who killed the gunman in Butler. “He hit him right between the eyes from 400 yards without any notice,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “If he didn’t do that, beyond me, you would have had a lot more people killed.”
Then, on Sept. 15, 2024, a man armed with a rifle hid in the shrubbery at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, plotting to shoot Mr. Trump.
The suspect, Ryan Routh, was convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison.
Asked on Saturday why he believed he was so often the target of violence, Mr. Trump said it was because of the consequential nature of his presidency.
“I studied assassinations, and I must tell you the most impactful, the people that do the most” are targeted, Mr. Trump said, adding: “The people that do the most, the people that make the biggest impact — they’re the ones that they go after.”
In addition to the known attempts on Mr. Trump’s life, he has faced other threats. Federal prosecutors have said that Iranian agents
plotted to kill Mr. Trump
in retaliation for the killing by the United States during Mr. Trump’s first term of
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani
, who helped lead Iran’s terrorism campaign.
The president is the highest-profile target of political violence, but the threats for years have affected officeholders at local, state and federal levels. The violence has taken the lives of members of both major political parties.
There was the mass shooting
in 2017 of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice that nearly killed Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana. And there was the assassination last year of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Democrats are also often under threat. There were the killings in Minnesota of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband; the arson attack on the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; a hammer assault on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the shootings at a Kamala Harris campaign office in Arizona.
There was also the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol that injured roughly 150 police officers.
Threats against members of Congress from both parties have skyrocketed.
Mr. Trump on Saturday acknowledged the atmosphere.
“In light of this evening’s events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts to resolving our differences peacefully,” he said.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said the incident Saturday put on display the “very worst and the very best of this country.”
“You saw the very worst by the actions of that coward, that coward that the president just talked about. But you also saw the very best, because you saw law enforcement do exactly what they’re supposed to do,” he said. In the videos of the incident, he added, “you’ll see law enforcement do exactly what we want them to do.”
Mr. Trump was asked whether he would change how he functioned, given how frequently he has been targeted. He said that he tries not to think about the dangers of the job.
“We’re going to reschedule,” he said of the dinner that was abruptly canceled. “We’re going to do it again. We’re not going to let anybody take over our society. We’re not going to cancel things out.”
Show more
April 26, 2026, 12:51 a.m. ET
Shawn Hubler
Reporting from Torrance
In the Los Angeles suburb where records show Mr. Allen lived in a modest, two story tract home, news crews and neighbors gathered Saturday night on darkened sidewalks as police helicopters circled overhead. F.B.I. agents arrived later, joining local police outside the house in Torrance.
In the driveway, two Hondas were parked beside a bright blue motor scooter that neighbors said Mr. Allen used to run errands. “This is a quiet neighborhood, lots of retired LAPD,” said James Costello, 53, a prop master who knew the Allen family well enough to say hello, but not much more. “That’s why we moved here. We were told it was super, super safe.”
Image
Credit...
Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
April 26, 2026, 12:30 a.m. ET
Michael M. Grynbaum
Reporting from inside the Washington Hilton ballroom.
Inside the confusion and fright at the Washington Hilton.
Image
Secret Service members responding after the sound of gunfire at the Washington Hilton on Saturday.
Credit...
Salwan Georges for The New York Times
The spring pea and burrata appetizer course had been distributed and the schmoozing hour of Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had begun when a small commotion occurred toward the back of the Washington Hilton ballroom shortly past 8:30 p.m.
It might have been an upturned catering cart, or perhaps a scuffle with protesters. Then security officers began sprinting down the aisles toward the elevated dais, where President Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance and the first lady, Melania Trump, had taken their seats just a few minutes earlier.
There were no announcements or cries of “get down.” Instead, a sense of danger spread across the room like a wave. Hundreds of the country’s top media executives, editors in chief and prominent television anchors, clad in tuxedos and evening gowns, instinctively dropped to the floor, crouching besides chairs and ducking under tables.
Image
Guests took cover inside the ballroom.
Credit...
Evan Vucci/Reuters
Image
Security took the stage of the dinner after President Trump was escorted out.
Credit...
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
A nauseous silence descended, punctuated by small gasps and whimpers. The loudest sounds were those of the security officers racing — and in some cases leaping over chairs and guests — to evacuate senior administration officials from the tightly packed ballroom.
No one had a hint as to what was going on — except that Mr. Trump had been rushed from the stage, which was now occupied by a pair of security officials brandishing large guns. (Later in the evening, officials said that an armed man had charged a security checkpoint and that a Secret Service officer had been shot.)
Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a guest of Fox News, crawled beneath her table, where she was comforted by the anchor Harris Faulkner and Trey Yingst, the network’s chief foreign correspondent. From beside his chair, Brian Stelter, CNN’s media correspondent, held his iPhone aloft, recording video of whatever scenes were unfolding above.
The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, looked pained as guards hustled them out.
Image
Fleeing after shots were fired.
Credit...
Salwan Georges for The New York Times
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Security at the Washington Hilton on Saturday.
Credit...
Salwan Georges for The New York Times
Others appeared relatively unfazed. Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, was sitting with CBS News journalists toward the front of the room when the emergency occurred. As the confusion unfolded, Mr. Blankfein turned to his seatmate and asked, “Are you going to finish that salad?”
After less than five minutes, the crowd sensed that any immediate threat had passed. Guests shakily returned to their feet, some wiping away tears.
Journalists are accustomed to chronicling moments of unexpected violence, but few
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