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What was supposed to be a glamorous, landmark Saturday evening at Washington D.C.’s Washington Hilton — marking Donald Trump’s first attendance at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner as sitting president — quickly descended into chaos when reports of gunshots sent attendees scrambling for cover and security agents rushing the commander-in-chief to safety. The incident unfolded as Trump sat on the event’s main dais, with sudden loud bangs cutting through the atmosphere of celebration, catching the president and other stage guests off guard, who immediately looked up in alarm. Footage captured by AFPTV, independent journalists on site, and other media outlets documents the panicky scene that unfolded in seconds. Moments after the loud reports, which attendees initially believed were gunshots, urgent shouts of “Get down!” and “Stay down!” rippled through the packed ballroom. Attendees ranging from veteran White House correspondents to senior Trump administration officials and cabinet members dropped to the floor or dove under tables to take cover. In the immediate aftermath of the disturbance, U.S. Secret Service agents surrounded President Trump with weapons drawn, swiftly escorting him off the stage through a rear curtain as the stunned crowd remained crouched in their places. The event’s big band performance came to an abrupt halt, and the normally festive room full of guests in formal ball gowns and tuxedos fell dead silent. Agents swarmed through the massive ballroom, moving past guests huddled on the floor, in a venue that carries grim historical weight: it is the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt 45 years prior to this incident. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was being evacuated when he told reporters on site, “Shots fired upstairs.” Also hurried out of the ballroom by security was U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who carries his own family history of assassination: his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas in 1963. Alexandra Ingersoll, a correspondent with One America News, who was inside the ballroom when the chaos began, described the rapid response from the Secret Service to protect the president. “I just ducked under the table and I was like ‘I’m not going to risk this,’” Ingersoll told AFP. “I didn’t know if the shooter was neutralized or what was going on.” With few immediate details available about what had actually triggered the disturbance, officials ordered a full evacuation of the ballroom. Hundreds of attendees filed out into the Hilton lobby and eventually into the chilly Washington evening, where many gathered outside. Guests could be seen hugging one another, frantically calling and texting friends, family members and their news organizations to update them on their safety. In an official statement released shortly after the incident, the Secret Service confirmed it was investigating a shooting near the main security screening perimeter for the dinner. “The president and the first lady are safe, along (with) all protectees,” the agency confirmed. “One individual is in custody.” As of Saturday evening, it remained unclear whether the person taken into custody had fired shots, or if the gunfire reported was from Secret Service agents responding to the threat. Around 8:40 pm local time (0040 GMT), an AFP reporter on the scene observed uniformed police sprinting through the streets surrounding the hotel, moving barriers to redirect foot traffic, clearing vehicles from the area as quickly as possible, while a police helicopter circled overhead. Minutes after the evacuation, a presidential motorcade departed the Hilton, heading toward the White House. No further updates on the condition of the individual in custody or the nature of the threat had been released as of the initial reporting.

On Saturday night, a shooting incident disrupted the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at Washington Hilton, triggering an immediate emergency evacuation of former president and current officeholder Donald Trump. What was meant to be a landmark appearance—Trump’s first attendance at the iconic media gala during his term in office—descended into chaos when gunshots rang out near the venue’s main security screening checkpoint, located just outside the packed ballroom where hundreds of formally dressed guests had gathered.

Within seconds of the loud bangs being reported, United States Secret Service agents drew their weapons, rushed Trump from the stage he was preparing to speak from, and swarmed through the crowds of attendees. Panicked guests dove under tables to take cover as tactical security units established defensive positions around the stage, while uniformed police flooded the hotel perimeter and law enforcement helicopters circled overhead.

The suspect, identified as the gunman, was taken into custody at the screening area shortly after the incident, and Trump confirmed he emerged from the evacuation completely unharmed. In a post to social media immediately after the incident, Trump praised the rapid response of security teams, writing, “Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended.”

He also confirmed that all other senior officials, including First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President and Cabinet members, were unharmed, stating, “The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition.” Shortly after the evacuation, Trump announced he would hold an official press conference at the White House to address the incident, and shared plans to reschedule the gala event within 30 days.

This incident marks the third high-profile security threat targeting Trump in less than a year. In 2024, an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania left one attendee dead and Trump with a minor wound to the ear. Just months after that attack, a second man was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel protruding from bushes on the perimeter of a West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.

Adding historical weight to the incident, the Washington Hilton—site of Saturday’s gala—was also the location of the 1981 assassination attempt on Republican president Ronald Reagan, who survived a gunshot wound after the attack just outside the venue.

Confusion lingered in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with senior administration officials evacuated first, and no clear initial details emerging on the severity of the incident or the suspect’s motives. Cabinet member Mehmet Oz, who was escorted out by security, confirmed to reporters he had been told “shots fired upstairs” as the evacuation began. Organizers initially told guests the dinner would continue following the incident, but later reversed course and announced the event would be postponed.

This year’s dinner was already notable for breaking decades of precedent: the White House Correspondents’ Association extended an invitation to Trump despite his years of public attacks on the mainstream media, and his attendance marked the first time he had appeared at the annual gathering during his current term in office. For more than a century, every sitting U.S. president has attended the dinner regularly, a tradition Trump had declined to uphold until this year.

Dubbed the “Nerd Prom” by attendees, the annual event brings together hundreds of Washington-based journalists, media executives, and political figures to raise funds for journalism scholarships and honor outstanding reporting. The gala traditionally features a stand-up comedian routine skewering the sitting president, followed by comedic remarks from the president himself—but organizers did not book a comedian for the 2025 iteration of the event.

As preparations got underway Sunday for a controversial anti-mass immigration rally led by One Nation founder Pauline Hanson on the grounds of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra, senior Liberal Party figure Angus Taylor has publicly admitted he shares some policy ground with the far-right leader, while pushing for sweeping changes to Australia’s immigration system centered on “Australian values” screening.

By early Sunday morning, event organizers had already begun setting up rally infrastructure, installing Australian national flags and immigration-focused posters emblazoned with flag motifs, with a large contingent of Australian police deployed to the site to maintain public order. Hanson is scheduled to address attendees of the “Rally To End Mass Immigration” later that day.

In an interview with public broadcaster ABC, Taylor responded to questions about Hanson’s hardline anti-immigration position, confirming that the two politicians see eye-to-eye on some key issues, though disagree on others. Taylor’s core starting point for immigration reform, he said, is that Australia’s current annual migration intake has remained far too high, while entry standards have dropped to unacceptably low levels.

The Liberal MP has repeatedly called for a full review and restructuring of Australia’s migration framework, one that enshrines Australian values as a core requirement for entry, including explicit provisions to block radical extremists from gaining entry to the country.

Taylor pushed back on suggestions that his framing of values-based screening would advantage migrants from majority Western nations such as the United Kingdom over migrants from Asian countries including China and Vietnam. He clarified that while “many good people come from bad countries”, noting that some of Australia’s most accomplished citizens trace their roots to nations that were considered unstable or hostile at the time they migrated, he believes “bad countries” inherently carry a higher risk of producing “bad people” seeking entry to Australia.

Despite this, Taylor insisted that the proposed screening process would not be based on country of origin, religion, or race, but exclusively on alignment with Australian values.

When pressed to confirm whether China – which critics frequently accuse of mass imprisonment of journalists and broad application of the death penalty – qualifies as a “bad country”, Taylor avoided a direct answer, instead pointing to other examples. “To claim that Iran is a good country right now. Seriously?” he said, noting that the current federal Labor government has already implemented legislation restricting entry for Iranian citizens, a move Taylor supports.

Taylor also repeated his earlier critical remarks about resettling Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, pointing to ongoing “terrible acts of atrocity” connected to the Israel-Hamas war in the blockaded enclave.

The public alignment between Taylor and Hanson comes at a tense political moment for the Liberal Party, as One Nation is widely predicted to win the New South Wales federal seat of Farrer from the Liberals following the resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley. The Victorian-based MP addressed questions about the Coalition’s controversial decision to give One Nation candidate preferences ahead of Climate 200-backed independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, brushing off concerns about the strategic choice.

Taylor said the Liberal Party continues to prioritize earning first-preference votes from Farrer voters, and has ranked the National Party second on its how-to-vote cards. Pressed on whether One Nation poses an existential threat to the Liberal Party, Taylor argued that the “existential threats” to Australia’s regional communities are teal independent policies and federal Labor policies.

Speaking to the impacts of current policy on regional Australia, Taylor said residents of rural areas are already facing acute anxiety over access to diesel, a critical resource for planting crops and operating freight transport that underpins regional economies across the country.

On Saturday evening local time, a violent security breach disrupted the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at Washington D.C.’s Hilton Hotel, where former President and current U.S. President Donald Trump was among 2,500 high-profile attendees. Newly released surveillance footage and first-person accounts have now shed light on the chaotic sequence of events that unfolded shortly after 8:30 p.m.

The alleged attacker, identified by authorities as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, a California-based professional with backgrounds in mechanical engineering, computer science, game development, and K-12 education, forced his way through a lobby security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple bladed weapons. According to D.C. Police Chief Jeffery W. Carroll, Allen was a registered guest of the hotel and was acting entirely alone, with no prior criminal record or known ties to extremist groups. Law enforcement officials confirmed Allen opened fire at close range on a U.S. Secret Service officer stationed at the checkpoint; the officer survived thanks to his bulletproof vest, and Trump told reporters Sunday he had spoken directly to the officer, who is in stable condition and recovering well.

Surveillance footage released in the hours after the incident captures Allen moving rapidly through the screening area, a detail Trump highlighted in his post-incident comments: “He was really moving … He looked pretty evil … he was a sick person.” For the President, the first sign of trouble was indistinguishable from a common event disruption: Trump told reporters he initially mistook the gunfire for a loudly dropped catering tray, before security personnel reacted within seconds to evacuate the venue. Footage from inside the packed ballroom shows Trump and First Lady Melania Trump seated at the head stage table when the shots rang out. Secret Service agents immediately rushed the President out of the room, an incident during which he appeared to stumble briefly, before evacuating the First Lady, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple senior cabinet members in attendance.

Eyewitness accounts from journalists inside the venue paint a picture of sudden, widespread panic. Veteran CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who was just feet from the shooter near a lobby restroom, told his network he saw Allen brought to the ground by responding agents. “I did see the gunman on the ground after he started shooting,” Blitzer said, adding that the suspect carried a “very, very serious weapon.” ABC News editor John Lyons, who was in the ballroom, described a chaotic scene where attendees scrambled to take cover under tables for 15 full minutes: “There was shouting and fear and you heard this kerfuffle,” he said. Sky News correspondent James Matthews called the mood “an atmosphere of extreme fear,” noting that agents moved Trump out of the venue in seconds.

By the time the scene was secured, Allen was taken into custody unharmed. Images from the hotel lobby show the suspect lying face-down on the floor, secured by law enforcement and wrapped in a thermal blanket. Overnight Sunday, FBI agents executed a search of Allen’s residence in Torrance, California, a suburban community roughly 20 miles south of Los Angeles, after securing a federal search warrant from a judge in the Central District of California.

Allen is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday to face multiple felony charges, including weapons violations during a violent crime. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Saturday that charges would be filed “shortly,” noting that the nature of the charges would be clear given the suspect’s actions.

In comments to reporters Saturday night at the White House, Trump framed the attack as an assault on the U.S. Constitution, praising the “very brave members of the Secret Service” for their rapid response that prevented any fatalities. He later posted to his Truth Social platform shortly after the incident, writing: “Quite an evening in DC. Secret Service and Police did a fantastic job. The shooter has been apprehended. I have recommended that we “LET THE SHOW GO ON” but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement. Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again.”

Event organizers ultimately canceled the dinner and announced plans to reschedule the event within 30 days. When asked whether the attack was an assassination attempt against him, coming after a previous failed assassination attempt during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump offered a characteristic response. He noted that throughout U.S. history, assassination attempts and successful attacks have targeted high-profile, transformative leaders, citing Abraham Lincoln as an example. “They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much because they like it that way,” Trump said. “And when you look at the people that have either whether it was an attempt or a successful attempt, that they’re very impressive, inspirational. … I hate to say I’m honoured by that, but I do know we’ve taken this country … and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world with this country. And there are a lot of people that are not happy about that. So I think that’s the answer.”

Saturday’s dinner marked the first time Trump has attended the annual press corps dinner during his two terms in office, an event held with extensive pre-planned security arrangements in response to ongoing threats against the President.