On Saturday, a 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen was arrested inside the Washington Hilton hotel, the venue hosting the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner where former and current U.S. President Donald Trump was gathered with national media figures. U.S. law enforcement officials now confirm that early investigations point to Allen having clear intentions to target Trump, along with other high-ranking members of the current administration.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche shared updates on the probe Sunday, noting that preliminary examinations of Allen’s electronic devices and interviews with his acquaintances have backed up investigators’ working theory. “It does appear that he did in fact have set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told reporters.
Allen is scheduled for his first federal court appearance in Washington D.C. Monday, facing two serious felony charges: unlawful use of a firearm during a violent criminal act, and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Authorities have recovered a roughly 1,000-word manifesto they believe was authored by Allen, which explicitly outlines a premeditated mass shooting plot with Trump listed as the primary target, multiple major U.S. media outlets have confirmed after reviewing the document. The text orders targeting of administration officials “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” and includes a line that reads, “I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” adding, “I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Minutes before he attempted to carry out the plan, Allen sent a message to his family members identifying himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” the Associated Press reported. The message also included broad criticisms of Trump administration policies, leading investigators to conclude the alleged plot was politically motivated. Trump, for his part, publicly commented Sunday that the manifesto was anti-Christian and reflected “a lot of hatred in his heart.”
Saturday’s incident marks at least the third known plot against Trump in less than two years: he survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July 2024, and just months later another individual was arrested for pointing a rifle at Trump while the president golfed in Florida.
This latest security breach has reignited national conversations about the growing crisis of political violence across the United States. Just seven months prior to the Washington Hilton incident, prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at a public rally, and only months before that, Democratic Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in a targeted attack that also left a state senator wounded. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after Kirk’s killing found that a large majority of U.S. respondents believe the increasingly harsh, divisive rhetoric that defines modern American politics is directly fueling the rise in election and policy-related violence.
The incident has also bolstered Trump’s long-stated push to construct a new private event ballroom on the White House grounds, arguing the off-site venue for the Correspondents’ Dinner, the Washington Hilton, lacks adequate security. The Hilton is located roughly a 10-minute drive from the White House, and holds a grim place in U.S. presidential history as the site of the 1981 assassination attempt against then-President Ronald Reagan. Even with hundreds of Secret Service agents assigned to secure the annual dinner, which draws hundreds of high-profile guests including cabinet secretaries, senior members of Congress, and A-list celebrities, Allen was still able to access a floor directly above the main ballroom armed with a shotgun and multiple other weapons, highlighting critical gaps in the event’s security apparatus.