White House Correspondents' Dinner suspect Cole Allen sent anti-Trump manifesto to family before opening fire

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 26 April 2026 11:56 EDT


The suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner reportedly sent a manifesto critical of President Donald Trump to his family before he allegedly opened fire at the Washington Hilton, The New York Post reports. Authorities identified the shooter as 31-year-old Cole Allen, a teacher from Torrance, California. The Post reported that the manifesto showed that Allen wanted to kill officials from the Trump administration.

“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed,” he said. Allen would proceed to list out some of the actions from the Trump administration that allegedly drove him to open fire.

“I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial,” he said. “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.”

Allen said that officials from the Trump administration–with the exception of FBI Director Kash Patel–were targets for his alleged rampage. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he wrote in reference to the president.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/cole-allen-trump-shooting-manifesto-b2965196.html

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. Why the exception for Kash Patel?

[LeftInTX]

2. POC? I think the guy was suicidal anyway. Anyone who tries this has got to be...

The guy wants to go out in a bang. He has a message, but he knows he's probably gonna get killed in the process. (martyr) Well, this time he didn't....

[LudwigPastorius]

3. Weird that he would reportedly be a member of...

a group that takes their name from a 160 year old Republican youth movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awakes

[mathematic]

4. "160 year old Republican youth movement"? Please tell me you're not this bad at history.

160 years ago the Republicans were the good guys and the Democrats were the bad guys.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. So, you think a wannabe assassin is a "good guy"?

Political murder is not the way in a democracy…even for someone like Trump.

[reACTIONary]

14. That's a misunderstanding of mathematic's comment...

..... He is correcting an anachronistic judgement by providing a historical fact.

[The Grand Illuminist]

24. It's becoming a very quiet growing movement.

nt

[LeftInTX]

11. There is another one founded in 2020

https://wideawakes.com/

It seems to be more on the "arts" side of things, but who knows?

There are also small local protest groups that pop up that splinter from other protest groups...

Also it comes from the NY Post, so maybe they have name of the group wrong...who knows?

[LudwigPastorius]

13. Thanks

[CousinIT]

5. What a dumbass. Now his actions have given legitimacy to Trump's

"kill all the leftists!" order.

[RussBLib]

18. which order is that?

musta missed that one

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[lonely bird]

6. Um, yeah, no

Another “manifesto”.

More bullshit.

And Kash Patel might be the stupidest mf-er in the administration after Trump.

[SpankMe]

8. To this moron, I say - You're not helping

Anyone considering violence against Republican officeholders as a response to America's downfall - currently in progress - only hurts the cause of countering that downfall.

This guy looks like he has mental illness of some sort. It's hard to suggest he should have known better. But us libs have to come out and forcefully disourage anything that could be inspired by this.

[Fil1957]

9. I agree, this is the last thing the progressive anti-Trump movement needs.

[generalbetrayus]

10. So, except Kash Patel? Maybe Kash Patel was the one who staged the assassination attempt?

Just sayin'. I doubt Patel has the brain power to stage an assassination attempt.

[Bluetus]

12. Bod reporting. Bad headline. (by The Independent)

Last edited Sun Apr 26, 2026, 03:47 PM - Edit history (1)

The headline should read "Washington Hilton suspect ..."

He was never anywhere near the Correspondent's dinner. There was zero probability anybody carrying a shotgun was going to enter the area secured by the SS. It is not clear he was a "shooter" at all. The only reports are that one SS agent went to the hospital with minor injuries, but that could have been a twisted ankle or a concrete fragment from an errant bullet shot by other SS agents.

Given the very real probability that this was a staged event, let's insist on the most accurate reporting and no bullshit headlines. The Independent is usually better than that.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Did you read the article?

He was apparently staying at the hotel and posted observations from outside and inside just before the event -

(snip)

Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” Allen wrote. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”

Ahead of the dinner, attendees only had to show their ticket and go through one round of magnetometers to get to the main ballroom where the event would be held, which Allen noted.

“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,” he said. “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.”

(snip)

I can't verify the veracity of what the original source (NY "Boast" ) reported that other outlets like this one, picked up to include in their articles as the "manifesto", but I expect that the description of the security profile was correct - that most of the concentration of LEO was outside on the street with the protestors. And since this was a "black tie event" (which is formal) then a decision was made to low-key it inside the hotel.

[Bluetus]

16. More crappy reporting, IMHO

There is zero chance that this article is correct. I have a low opinion of the SS, but they aren't THAT stupid. They establish a perimeter for every event, and that includes every way in and out -- service elevators, rarely used staircases, etc. If they did not secure those paths, that is pretty clear evidence that this was a planned stunt.

Every article I have seen has been explicit that the supposed perp never got anywhere close to the SS perimeter and he was never on the floor where the event was to occur.

In Butler, the official telling of the story is that the shots were fired from outside the perimeter with an uncanny level of precision.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. It's not necessarily the SS.

It's whoever put the "plan" together that would involve WAY MORE than the SS - like the D.C. Metro Police and even the damn 2000+ National Guard "patrolling the streets" of D.C., picking up trash and doing landscaping.

I just saw an article that reminded about something that happened 45 years ago AT the same hotel -

Sound of Gunfire Carries Eerie Echoes of Reagan's Shooting Outside the Same Washington Hotel (AP article via U.S. News & World Report)

That incident changed how the SS handles Presidents. The issue is that venue and securing it when you have such political upheaval in this day and time.

There is more fucking "security" (riot police, NG, ICE agents) at peaceful protests than for our elected officials.

Every article I have seen has been explicit that the supposed perp never got anywhere close to the SS perimeter

The hotel surveillance video that has circulated showed he BLEW PAST that first "perimeter" of Secret Service and was apparently cutoff right as he reached the stairs that went to the floor where the ballroom was.

Not sure what you were looking at or reading.

[onenote]

25. Have you been to a dinner at the Washington Hilton?

I've been to dozens of them over the years. From the reporting, he got pretty close to the stairs that lead downstairs to the ballroom.

[Bluetus]

27. "Pretty close to the stairs that lead to ..."

My point exactly. It is far from clear that he had any intention of entering the ballroom, and that only could have happened with a complete failure of the most basic security measures, or as part of a staged production.

[onenote]

28. It takes hardly any time at all to go down those stairs and into the ballroom.

Maybe a minute, less if one is running. I've done it myself.

But agree totally that the security failures were inexcusable.

[Bluetus]

29. And he could be in that same location if he never intended to enter the ballroom

and instead intended to shoot some cabinet people outside.

It is irresponsible of the media and anybody else to claim to know that he was headed for the ballroom.

[live love laugh]

19. How'd he get access to communication with the family and the hotel?

[sarisataka]

20. One would have to believe the hotel had wifi

At a Hilton in DC- preposterous.

[live love laugh]

22. WiFi is everywhere what's that have to do with contacting the family?

[sarisataka]

23. You asked how the shooter could contact his family

[spooky3]

26. There have been reports that wifi service wasn't working (well?) during the dinner. nt

[somsai]

21. I saw a list of his most liked accounts over the past month

embarrassing, no wonder he went around the bend.

[marshall]

30. Does he have a GoFundMe?

I doubt that his family and friends can afford the legal bills for his defense.