WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on April 26 that the suspect accused of trying to attack administration officials at the April 25 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was a “pretty sick guy” who had an anti-Christian manifesto.
He said in TV interviews that the suspect’s family previously expressed concerns about him to law enforcement officials.
The suspect, whom an official identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, was arrested at the scene of the event in Washington.
“He was a Christian, believer, and then he became an anti-Christian, and he had a lot of change,” Mr Trump told CBS’ 60 Minutes programme. “He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
The manifesto was sent to members of Allen’s family shortly before the attack, a law enforcement official told Reuters. In it, the suspect called himself the Friendly Federal Assassin, the official said.
“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behaviour; 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 – prioritised from highest ranking to lowest, the official said.
The manifesto mocked the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton hotel, 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 chaotic events raised fresh questions about the security of top US officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel’s expansive ballroom.
Mr Trump seized on the attention brought by the incident to promote his planned White House ballroom as a safer, more secure alternative for such events.
“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The suspect travelled by Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, checking into the Hilton on April 24, Acting US Attorney-General Todd Blanche said on multiple talk shows, adding that Mr Trump and top members of his administration were the likely targets.
Train passengers in the US are not required to pass through airport-style metal detectors.
Amtrak said it is cooperating with the investigation.
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.
Mr Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President J.D. 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, Mr Trump said.
Mr 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.”
White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS said the group’s board would meet to determine their next steps.
The suspect will be charged in federal court on April 27 with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Mr Blanche said, adding he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack. Further federal indictments will be coming later, he said.
The April 25 incident came amid a rising tide of political violence in the US 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 Mr Kirk’s murder found that Americans believe that increasingly harsh rhetoric surrounding politics is encouraging violence in the US.
Former US president Barack Obama on April 26 called on Americans to reject violence following the attack, reported AFP.
“Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all (of) us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Mr Obama wrote on X, adding praise for law enforcement officers who scrambled to protect Mr Trump.
A White House official said 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.
Mr Trump suggested the protest might have spurred the suspect to action.
“Part of the reason you have people like that is you have people doing No Kings,” he told CBS. “I’m not a king.”
Around the world, leaders condemned the attack and expressed relief that Mr 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 US visit by King Charles of Britain scheduled to start on April 27 will proceed, Mr 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.
Little was immediately known about the 31-year-old alleged shooter’s background, but social media posts indicated he had worked at C2 Education, a national private test preparation and tutoring service.
C2 Education said in a statement that it was cooperating with law enforcement investigators.
Washington interim police chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
Allen had purchased two handguns and a shotgun and stored them at his parents’ home, the White House official said.
The suspect lived with his parents in a two-storey house on a tree-lined street with picket fences and craftsman-style homes in the historic district of Torrance, a seaside town in the South Bay area of greater Los Angeles.
Neighbours in the middle-class neighbourhood on April 27 said they were only casually acquainted with him and his parents, with most saying they never spoke to him beyond a brief hello or waving to them as they gave Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters. REUTERS, AFP
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