Former agent calls attempted Trump shooting suspect ‘scattered,’ narcissistic

Prosecutors’ court filing in the case against Cole Allen, who is accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, provided an insight into the days leading up to the 31-year-old’s attack on last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C.

According to the filing, Allen took an Amtrak train on April 21 after purchasing a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to the nation’s capital, stopping only in Chicago to change trains. Prosecutors said he “jotted down on his phone his observations and thoughts during the cross-country train journey” as he left.

But these notes had nothing to do with Allen’s alleged plan to commit the ultimate crime. Rather, his musings along the way, in line with what he wrote in a later manifesto, paint a picture of an unfocused person whose thoughts, despite the seriousness of the situation, were, as a former FBI behavioral analyst said, “scattered.”

While traveling through the southwestern United States on the first leg of his journey, Allen made a note: “[t]Southwest desert in spring Distant wind turbines looming like snowy mountains in the misty NM desert.”

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Of Chicago, where he would change trains and take a second train to his final destination, Allen wrote: “Chicago is wonderful; like a small town in Iowa enlarged to the size of Los Angeles.” Of the strip of southwestern Pennsylvania he would pass through, he wrote that “the forest is magnificent (looking like vast fairy lands with little streams trickling in spring).”

The train route that Cole Allen took from Los Angeles to Washington DC and changed trains in Chicago. Allen’s three-day journey began on April 21, 2026, and he took notes along the way. (Fox News Digital)

Allen arrived in Washington, D.C. early in the afternoon on Friday, April 24. He spent approximately 30 hours in the city before launching the alleged attack.

Surveillance video from the Washington Hilton hotel, also released by the Justice Department, shows Allen wandering the halls, entering the hotel fitness center and looking around before hastily exiting.

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Minutes before the attack, a pre-planned email explaining his actions was sent to Allen’s family and friends, according to authorities.

He allegedly acknowledged that his mission would at least seriously harm him, but never indicated that he was prepared to die for his cause. His motivations were political and he portrayed himself as the savior of the oppressed. He apologized profusely to family, friends and everyone he came in contact with as he traveled the country. He described himself as “friendly”, noting that there were some people he hoped would not be caught in the crossfire.

Surveillance video released by the Justice Department shows suspect Cole Allen running towards the security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton with a gun in hand during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack. (Ministry of Justice)

Jonny Grusing served as a special agent in the FBI’s Denver Field Office for 25 years. For 13 of those years, he served as coordinator of the department’s Behavior Analysis Unit.

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“His arrogance about what he spoke or wrote on the train matches what he wrote in his manifesto, ‘hello everyone, so I may have given a lot of people a surprise today,'” Grusing said. “I mean, this isn’t someone focusing on one complaint per se.”

“I can say that it is contradictory. He apologizes to everyone, even the people he passes. [train] He’s not harming them in any way,” Grusing said. “But he’s apologizing to people at work, he’s apologizing to his family, and he’s apologizing to people he might have to use violence against. “Whether he’s trying to convince the person reading this that he’s not a bad person or that he’s conflicted… this doesn’t seem to me to be someone who seems determined to succeed in his mission.”

A photo of Cole Allen in his graduation gown and hat from 2025. (Cole Allen/LinkedIn)

Grusing said Allen appeared “a mess” and described him as narcissistic.

“The profiling unit has taught us dangerous human traits, and two traits that I think would apply to Mr. Allen are narcissism and psychopathy,” he said. “I think he became more narcissistic because of his writings, saying ‘this is on me’, ‘this is my problem’. [and] ‘I must take action.'”

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“And even as he was trying to manage other people’s perception of him, the people who rode the train with him and helped him carry his luggage, for example, were not impressed at all,” Grusing said. “But he still feels like he’s affecting the whole community with what he’s doing, and it makes me think, when he makes those little statements and apologizes to everyone, he’s like, ‘I’m going to be a national figure by doing this. Look at me.’ “he says.”

“So he portrays himself as this martyr, this patriot, the only person who can really fix this broken thing, and that’s very dangerous.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Allen’s attorney.