By Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Jana Winter and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the suspect accused of trying to attack administration officials at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had an anti-Christian manifesto and “a lot of hatred in his heart” but was stopped well short of the hotel ballroom hosting the event.
Trump told Fox News that the suspect was “a sick guy” and that his family previously expressed concerns about him to law enforcement officials. The suspect, whom an official identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was arrested at the scene of the event in Washington, D.C.
“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing” program.
The manifesto was sent to Allen’s family members shortly before the attack, a law enforcement official told Reuters. The suspect called himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin,” the official said.
“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” the manifesto read, according to the official.
Targets listed in the manifesto included administration officials – although not FBI Director Kash Patel – prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest, the official said.
The manifesto mocked the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held, the official added.
“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” the manifesto’s author reportedly wrote. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”
The suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, adding that Trump and top members of his administration were the likely targets.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Officials have said that the suspect fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel before being tackled and arrested.
Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other cabinet officials were rushed out of the dinner as the incident unfolded. The Secret Service agent who was shot escaped serious injury because the bullet struck his protective vest, Trump said.
Trump, who had boycotted the media gala in the past, has requested that the dinner be rescheduled within 30 days, adding: “That was going to be an important event.”
The suspect will be charged in federal court on Monday with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Blanche said, adding he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack. Further federal indictments will be coming later, Blanche said.
Saturday’s incident came amid a rising tide of political violence in the United States in recent years. Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a rally last September, just months after the June 2025 slaying of Democratic Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of a Minnesota state senator in June 2025.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following Kirk’s murder found that Americans believe that increasingly harsh rhetoric surrounding politics is encouraging violence in the U.S.
Around the world, leaders condemned the attack and expressed relief that Trump and all present were safe. NATO leader Mark Rutte called it an attack “on our free and open societies” and leaders stressed violence had no place in a democracy.
A planned U.S. visit by King Charles of Britain scheduled to start on Monday will proceed, Trump and British officials said. The British embassy said in a statement that discussions were taking place on whether the incident may affect planning for the visit.
SUSPECT PLANNED TO ‘DO SOMETHING’
Little was immediately known about the 31-year-old alleged shooter’s background, but social media postings suggested he was a teacher in Torrance, near Los Angeles.
Washington Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
A White House official said that law enforcement officials who interviewed Allen’s sister were told he had a tendency to make radical statements, had attended an anti-Trump “No Kings” protest and referred to a plan to do “something” to fix issues with today’s world.
Allen had purchased two handguns and a shotgun and stored them at his parents’ home, the White House official said.
The chaotic events from around 8:35 p.m. raised fresh questions about the security of top U.S. officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel’s expansive ballroom.
The dinner was attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials amid heavy security. It was the first time Trump attended the event as president, having boycotted it in previous years.
Security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage pointing rifles into the ballroom as Trump, his wife Melania, and Vice President JD Vance were evacuated. Cabinet members who had been sitting at tables dotted around the vast room were escorted out by their security details one by one.
The site of the dinner was the scene of an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.
Trump stayed backstage for about an hour after being hustled from the stage, a source told Reuters. He later said he had not wanted to leave the event, a remark that echoed images of him defiantly pumping his fist after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.
(Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh, Tim Reid, Jonathan Landay, Steve Gorman, Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Jasper Ward, Gram Slattery, Humeyra Pamuk, Andrea Shalal and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Writing by David Lawder and Tim Reid; Editing by William Mallard, Sergio Non, Ross Colvin, Caitlin Webber and Bill Berkrot)
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