Cole Tomas Allen charged with attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Updated
Updated · The Wall Street Journal · May 3
Cole Tomas Allen charged with attempted assassination of Donald Trump
11 articles · Updated · The Wall Street Journal · May 3
Prosecutors say the 31-year-old rushed a Secret Service checkpoint outside the Washington Hilton ballroom with a shotgun and pistol during last month's press dinner.
Secret Service director Sean Curran said a wounded officer returned fire five times after being shot in the chest, as lawmakers questioned security failures and the FBI's public account.
The attack was the third direct assassination attempt against Trump in less than two years, intensifying scrutiny of whether the agency learned lessons from the 2024 Butler shooting.
How did a heavily armed attacker bypass Secret Service protocols, and what hidden vulnerabilities does this reveal about current presidential security?
Inside the Washington Hilton Shooting: Security Breaches and Political Violence in 2026
Overview
On April 25, 2026, Cole Thomas Allen attacked the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, firing a shotgun after bypassing multiple security layers, including a failed magnetometer screening. Despite being heavily armed, Allen was quickly subdued by Secret Service agents who evacuated President Trump and others safely. Allen legally acquired his weapons in California and transported them by train to Washington, D.C., exploiting security gaps by assembling them in his hotel room. His attack, motivated by a self-styled "Friendly Federal Assassin" ideology, exposed critical security failures and sparked a major overhaul of presidential protection protocols amid growing concerns over the normalization and surge of political violence in the U.S.