President Donald Trump says gunman Cole Allen who allegedly shot a Secret Service agent during a Trump assassination attempt the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday night “hates Christians,” based on a manifesto the suspect left.
“He hates Christians, that’s one thing for sure,” Trump told Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News on “The Sunday Briefing.”
“And I think his sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. They were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was a very troubled guy.”
President Trump on the WHCD shooter: “The guy is a sick guy when you read his manifesto. He hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure.” pic.twitter.com/CAgLsKTBbD
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 26, 2026
“He had a lot of hatred in his heart for quite a while,” said Trump, who said Allen’s motive apparently “was a religious thing, it was strongly anti-Christian.”
“So he’s got some big problems with there rest of his life,” Trump added. “His family knew that he had difficulty. Maybe they should have reported him little bit more strongly … but it’s a hard thing to do.”
BREAKING: Trump just posted security footage of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The Suspect was running WILD through the heavily secured corridor at the WHCD
This is insane… https://t.co/sWNGqjKL2C pic.twitter.com/K0qD0IQP9g
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 26, 2026
Allen reportedly sent an anti-Trump manifesto to his own family about 10 minutes before opening fire at the annual dinner, indicating he was trying to kill top Trump officials, and even signing his letter as the “Friendly Federal Assassin.”
HOST: He left a manifesto in the hotel room that his brother had notified New London Police about prior to this incident… @POTUS: I heard about the New London situation, and I wish they would have told us about it a little bit, but it is what it is. We had a great group of… pic.twitter.com/Gosa3j1mHL
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026
According to the New York Post, Allen wrote in the document: “Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial.”
“I’m not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”
He mentioned his targets as: “Administration officials (not including [FBI Director Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen wrote, an apparent reference to President Trump.
“In order to minimize casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls). I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Allen ridiculed the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton, claiming agents of Iran would be able to employ even more powerful weapons, and “no one would have noticed sh**.”
“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance. I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat,” he wrote.
“The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.
Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.”
Allen added: “Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed sh**. Actually insane.”
Heinrich herself reported:
Secret Service and Montgomery County Police interviewed Avriana Allen, ALLEN’s sister, at their residence in Rockville, MD. The following highlights from the interview:
•Allen said her brother had a tendency to make radical statements and his rhetoric constantly referenced a plan to do “something” to fix the issues with today’s world.
•Confirmed ALLEN purchased two handguns and a shotgun from Cap Tactical Firearms and kept them stored at their parent’s home and that their parents were unaware that ALLEN was keeping the firearms in the home.
•ALLEN would regularly go to the shooting range to train with his firearms
•ALLEN was part of a group called ‘The Wide Awakes’
•ALLEN attended a ‘No Kings’ protest in California at some point
Trump concluded his Fox New interview telling Heinrich: “Let’s not people like this change the course of our country.”
Kari Lake, Trump’s administrator for the United States Agency for Global Media, was present for the dinner, and is slamming what she calls “lax security.”
“I can’t believe how lax the security was at the White House correspondents dinner,” Lake said. “Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that.
“When you consider you are entering a roomful of fake news media – 90% of whom hate the President you would think they would have better security. This is what happened when what sounded like gunfire erupted. On the way out, I called-out a bunch of the disgusting Media who have been pushing hatred toward President Trump for years. They are a big part of the discord in this country.
I can’t believe how lax the security was at the White House correspondents dinner tonight. Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that. When… pic.twitter.com/sLQjJDCEK1
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 26, 2026
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin also attended the dinner where the mayhem erupted, and he discussed security, saying: “The first exterior security for me was on the street outside of the hotel. I flashed my ticket and was waved through in one second. My name was not checked against any list, I showed no ID, I was not patted down and did not go through a metal detector. I probably could have shown a ticket from a prior year or a fake one as they barely looked at it. (I don’t know who that exterior security was, they were guys in suits).
“From that point, I walked into the hotel with no further security check, and I walked down to the Fox pre-party where there were multiple ballrooms that were absolutely PACKED with attendees. Still did not go through any security at that point.
“Hypothetically, If I had hidden an explosive in my shoe or my jacket, I would have had no problem getting into one of those ballrooms.
“Only once it was time to get into the main ballroom for the dinner did we pass through magnetometers, empty our pockets, and get a pat down. And even that checkpoint was just outside of the dinner room.
“Two things can be true at the same time. Secret Service reacted quickly to an active armed threat and prevented that threat from getting into the ballroom. But the security leading up to that point, in my opinion, appeared to be lacking severely.”
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SHOTS FIRED: Trump rushed out of White House Correspondents Dinner as gunfire erupts
WATCH: Trump addresses America in aftermath of shooting at White House Correspondents Dinner
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