There was a shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night. Donald Trump was there, so was Melania Trump, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy Jr. and half of Trump’s cabinet. There are so many weird parts about this, but let’s stick with some facts. Trump skipped the WHCD last year, but he and his people made a HUGE deal about his attendance this year. In an interview, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt even promised a “shots fired” moment for the evening just minutes before shots rang out. Reportedly, the shooter is in custody.
You would think that with all of the advance hype about Trump’s presence at this year’s WHCD, Secret Service would be all over it, and there would be multiple checkpoints and everyone would need two forms of ID? Apparently not. These days, the Secret Service does vibes-based security. One video even shows the painfully slow reaction time of the SS even after you can hear the shots off-camera. The SS also pulled Vance off the dais before they could drag Trump off, and Trump also fell as he was being dragged (see tweet video below).
After Trump was taken off the dais, the SS kept him in the building, which is also bizarre – from what I know of SS protocol, they should have immediately put him in the Beast, the armored limo, and taken him to either the White House or an undisclosed location. Trump eventually made it back to the White House and he gave a press conference in which he argued that this kind of situation proves why he needs to build his big, beautiful ballroom. I’m not joking. The line about the ballroom was parroted by MAGA influencers online too. This whole thing is crazy as hell.
Weird … Vance escorted out before Trump. Then Trump falls down as he’s getting escorted out. pic.twitter.com/OxKSbMZcYx
— Meidas_Charise Lee (@charise_lee) April 26, 2026
MAGA accounts tweet in unison about the need for a White House ballroom following WHCD incident pic.twitter.com/3acgko7qv3
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 26, 2026
This was the only thing required for entry into the Washington Hilton ballroom. There was no security screening prior to entering the lobby. #WHCD pic.twitter.com/8T6inBmQTX
— Misha Komadovsky (@komadovsky) April 26, 2026
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
