Shooter’s path to White House press gala prompts security questions

WASHINGTON— The attack on a dinner party of White House correspondents by a gunman who came within feet of the ballroom where President Trump was seated raised pressing questions about the night’s security protocol and the future of large, high-profile events in a country with easy access to firearms and growing political tensions.

The man broke through metal detectors in front of the Washington Hilton ballroom and ran dozens of steps forward before exchanging gunfire with federal agents. The shooting occurred in a waiting room where thousands of guests, including high-ranking government officials, had flocked just an hour before.

A manifesto allegedly written by the suspect stated that his targets were members of the Trump administration, from highest to lowest; However, it was stated that he was ready to “pass through” any guest who came his way to kill the president’s aides.

The attempted attack on a roomful of dignitaries underscored the civil unrest of Trump’s second term and deepened questions about how to effectively create security in a modern age of lone actors, online radicalization and mass shootings. This was the third time an assassination attempt is known to have come close to Trump since the 2024 presidential campaign began.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche on Sunday called the U.S. Secret Service’s response a “huge security success story.” But hours after the incident, bipartisan leaders of the House Oversight Committee requested a hearing on the agency’s security plans for the dinner.

In the manifesto sent to his family, the alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, marveled at the lack of security.

“No damn security. Not on transportation. Not on hotel. Not on event,” he wrote. “I walk in with multiple guns and not a single person there thinks I could be a threat.”

The Hilton, in a swanky Washington neighborhood, has long hosted White House correspondents’ dinners. This is the same hotel where President Reagan and three others were shot in 1981.

The conflict caused terror among the guests; Some guests noted that they expected more security entering the event, and that Trump was thrown off stage within the first minute of the shooting. While the event has traditionally hosted presidents in the past, Trump’s decision to attend this year for the first time since taking office has made the event particularly high-profile.

His presence, along with Vice President J.D. Vance and much of the Cabinet and line of succession, brought with it additional security protocols and personnel; That raised questions about whether the storied dinner and its guests of congressmen, diplomats and mid-level officials would have been even more susceptible to the attack without Trump’s involvement.

Trump said Sunday it was “difficult” to secure a hotel in the middle of a city with “buildings all around and hotel rooms on top,” but he praised the Secret Service and law enforcement. One police officer was shot, although not fatally.

Speaking to reporters after the incident on Saturday night, Trump quickly likened it to the attempt on his life by a gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 presidential campaign and suggested it justified his controversial plans to build a fortified ballroom on the White House grounds. He described the hotel as “not a particularly safe building”, but later said the room was “very, very safe”.

Plans to reschedule the dinner are being reviewed. White House Correspondents Assn. CBS News President Wiejia Jiang said the organization’s board of directors will meet to evaluate what happened.

Blanche said on Sunday that the investigation into what happened was ongoing. Before dinner, he had attended a reception hosted by CBS News on the first floor of the hotel; this was one of many receptions that did not require any security checks by law enforcement.

“The first conclusion, or the obvious conclusion, is that the system worked. We stopped the suspect, and as soon as he tried to do what he was trying to do, we stopped him,” Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But Neil Shortland, director of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said the attack raises questions about whether presidential security protocols are effective for modern tactics or whether the country is in “new territory” where those procedures no longer meet the nature of potential threats.

Federal investigators should examine what security policies are, what types of attacks they are designed to prevent and whether that protocol has been updated, Shortland said.

“Have you followed the policy, that’s a great question,” he said. “Was the policy right in this modern age and for this modern situation?” It is a separate question.

Sam Vinograd, a former Department of Homeland Security official, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the country faces “the most complex threat landscape in our nation’s history,” particularly from lone actors who are often radicalized online.

“It may be true that law enforcement and intelligence experts prepared extensively for last night,” he said on Sunday. “But it may also be true that right now, in this security environment, the paradigms of the past may not be sufficient to meet the moment.”

He said this raises “the need to rethink what needs to be done to actually secure these mass gatherings.”

Trump echoed the same idea to reporters Saturday evening, saying, “We need security today at a level that probably no one has ever seen before.” “That’s why we need to have it,” he said of the East Wing ballroom, which he described as drone-proof and having bulletproof glass.

Kris Brown, president of the gun control organization Brady, named for James Brady, Reagan’s press secretary who was shot in the 1981 attack, said lawmakers should instead consider passing legislation that would help prevent gun violence.

“Not every public event can take place in a ballroom, under that kind of protection — nor can we afford to live in a society where our solution to gun violence is to barricade our public servants, barricade our children in fortresses,” Brown said.

Nearly 2,000 journalists, dignitaries and other guests attended the event, rushing in through the rain using multiple hotel entrances. Security guards asked them to show their tickets as they passed by, but there was no check-in or ID check. A Times reporter waved toward the entrance without showing a ticket as she tried to pull it from her purse.

Inside, guests wandered through the many levels where pre-dinner receptions were held. Hotel guests mingled with the crowd and had full access to the hotel’s amenities, including boutiques and restaurants.

Two protesters briefly took over the small red carpet where guests lined up to take professional photos; Times reporters saw a third woman, dressed in formal dress and chanting protest slogans, being escorted out by security guards after apparently entering the event.

Guests were required to show their tickets to ride the escalator down to the ballroom level, then flash their tickets before passing through metal detectors and having bags searched in front of the ballroom entrance.

Allen, who booked a room as a hotel guest, said in his manifesto obtained by the New York Post that security was much less tight than he expected. Two US officials told The Times that the contents of the manifesto were authentic.

“I expected security cameras at every corner, hotel rooms tapped, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors at the zoo. What I encountered (who knows, maybe they’re joking with me!) was nothing,” he wrote.

He noted that security guards seemed focused on protesters and outsiders, writing: “Apparently no one thought about what would happen if they checked in the day before.”

Erin Kearns, director of law enforcement partnerships at the National Center for Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Training, said steps taken to further restrict access to the ballroom level, keep guests away from the venue and check attendees’ IDs outside could provide additional security.

“The lesson is to think about how you toughen up and strengthen security at future events with so many high-profile people,” he said.

Shortland said the hotel was a “soft target” with a makeshift perimeter and “almost zero points of intervention” where the shooter could have been apprehended before arriving. This was partly because he was traveling by train, which had no security screening.

Shortland said officials should also examine whether Allen was known to authorities and, if so, whether intelligence officials could piece together his train ride with his arrival in the president’s orbit.

The attempted shooting adds to a growing list of examples of political violence in the United States. Last year, a Minnesota lawmaker and his wife were killed by a gunman, while another lawmaker and his wife survived; On Saturday, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a speaking event where his wife, Erika, was in attendance; An arsonist attacked the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Some of this violence was directed at Trump, and it’s something he talks about frequently. He was injured in the Butler incident but used his survival to claim that God saved him so he could become president. Two months later, a Secret Service agent opened fire on a gunman who pointed a rifle at Trump’s golf course while the President was golfing.

On February 22, a gunman was shot and killed after entering the secure zone around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home while the president was in Washington.

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It kind of happened to me,” Trump said Saturday.