Fact-checking falsehoods after shooting in hotel hosting correspondents’ dinner Trump attended

Shots fired inside the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner attended by President Donald Trump caused immediate confusion about the suspect and what transpired at the April 25 event.

Trump and many government officials and journalists focused on questions about how a person was able to fire a gun in the same building — not the same room — as the president, raising questions about security nearly two years after Trump was the target of two separate assassination attempts. 

Several news outlets identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, citing unnamed government sources. As of early afternoon April 26, authorities had not officially identified the shooter. A person was taken into police custody and is expected to be arraigned April 27 on charges of assault of a federal officer and discharging a firearm, with more charges possible. 

Trump told Fox News the shooter had a "manifesto" that showed he is a "sick man" and "hates Christians."

On social media, misinformation quickly spread. 

Some X posts questioned whether the shooting was a conspiracy, sharing partial remarks or actions by people in attendance in ways that distorted the facts. 

And at least one reporter shared inaccurate information in the immediate aftermath, with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posting on X that a Secret Service agent told her the suspect was "confirmed dead." Ten minutes later, Collins wrote that Trump said the shooter had been apprehended.

Hours after the shooting at the Washington Hilton, many key facts such as the suspect’s motive remained unknown. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said April 26 on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that the suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then Washington, D.C. The man was staying at Washington Hilton; in 1981 John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan outside the hotel.

Blanche said administration officials believed the April 25 shooting "was targeting administration officials," adding that the investigation is "quite preliminary."

When pressed about whether the suspect targeted Trump himself, Blanche said, "We’re still looking into that. … But it does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president, but I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that."

Here are fact-checks based on the information available so far.

Karoline Leavitt’s remarks about "shots fired" referred to Trump’s planned speech 

Before the event, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an interview with Fox News, "There will be some shots fired tonight in the room." An X post inferred that meant Leavitt had advance notice about the shooting. "What did Karoline Leavitt know?" the post said, sharing the Fox News clip.

Leavitt’s statement referred to Trump’s planned speech, not foreshadowing of violence.

In a friendly exchange, a Fox News interviewer said to Leavitt that in 2011, President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers joked that Trump would never be president. The interviewer said, "This is the biggest middle finger in the history of comedy …here we are with President Trump going on stage as a two term president for the first time. … This man is ready to rumble, is he not?"

Trump attended the dinner before he was president in 2011 and 2015 but did not attend during his first presidency or in 2025.

Leavitt replied, "He is ready to rumble, I will tell you. This speech tonight will be classic Donald J. Trump. It will be funny. It will be entertaining. There will be some shots fired tonight in the room. So everyone should tune in. It will be really great."

The day after the shooting, Leavitt posted on X, "What was supposed to be a fun night at the @WHCA dinner with President Trump delivering jokes and celebrating free speech was hijacked by a depraved crazy person who sought to assassinate the President and kill as many top Trump administration officials as possible."

Suspect was tackled, not shot

Authorities said the suspect was not shot. But social media posts questioned whether he was.

One X post the night of the shooting said, "Something 'stopped' the shooter. He is shown on the ground, chest and back exposed (center mass). Where did the Agents shoot him? What stopped him? Where is the blood?"

The X post included an image that Trump posted on Truth Social. The image shows the suspect face down with his hands behind his back. The man’s full body is not visible — only his head, shoulders, upper back and part of his arms.

Trump posted a video the night of the shooting showing a person running through a room and people who appear to be law enforcement officers pulling out their guns. 

Jeffery W. Carroll, interim Metropolitan Police Department chief, said at a news conference shortly after the shooting that at about 8:36 p.m. Eastern Time, a person charged through a Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel lobby armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives. Secret Service agents intercepted the person and law enforcement officers exchanged gunfire with him.

"The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire," Carroll said. "However, he was transported to a local hospital to be evaluated."

Trump said during a press conference after the shooting that one officer was shot from a close distance but saved by his bulletproof vest. "I just spoke to the officer and he's doing great," Trump said. 

Fox News reporter’s clipped call isn’t evidence the shooting was staged 

Another X post tried to use a Fox News reporter’s on-air conversation with Leavitt’s husband as evidence the shooting was staged. 

The post said "HOLY SH*T: Fox News just cut one of their reporters off as they seemed to indicate the shooting was a pre-planned false flag." 

The post shows a clip of an interview with Aishah Hasnie, a Fox News reporter calling in to her network after the shooting. Hasnie said she was sitting next to Leavitt’s husband at the dinner and as the event was starting, he said, "You need to be very safe," and he was just very serious when he said that to me, and he kind of looked around the room and said there are some…" Then Hasnie’s phone call with the network abruptly ended.

Hasnie said in a followup X post that the call dropped because of poor cell service in the ballroom.

"To finish the story, he was telling me to be careful with my own safety because the world is crazy. Which is what my own father and other people have also said to me recently. He was expressing his concern for my safety," Hasnie wrote. 

Man holding up a card was an entertainer, not signaling a shooting

Another X post zeroed in on a video clip of a man standing next to Trump, briefly holding up a card before the shots were heard. The video shows Trump’s wife, Melania, looking surprised, and then Weijia Jiang, CBS News' senior White House correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, covering her mouth with her hand in surprise.

The X post said the person who held up the card "may have been signaling something to another person." 

The man was Oz Pearlman, the mentalist, who was scheduled to perform at the dinner. Pearlman told CNN’s "State of the Union" that at that moment, he was performing for the Trumps and Leavitt.

Pearlman said at the moment shown in the video clip, the expressions on people’s faces were because of a revealing moment in his performance. 

"It's kind of like a pivotal moment in the trick where you're just about to do the reveal of, like, wow. And we hear commotion. And in the room, when there's commotion of that sort, you tend to think — we have been to a lot of events — is this a medical emergency? Is somebody having a heart attack?"

Pearlman told ABC’s Jonathan Karl that he was guessing the name of Leavitt’s unborn baby.