U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized the press following an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last Saturday. The outburst was triggered by CBS journalist Nora O'Donnell, who quoted excerpts from the shooter's so-called 'manifesto'.
On April 25, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, attempted to breach a security checkpoint at the hotel hosting a gala dinner attended by top government officials. During a shootout with the Secret Service, an officer was wounded (his life saved by a bulletproof vest), and the attacker was apprehended.
Before the attack, Allen sent a document to his family and published it online, which the media dubbed a 'manifesto.' In it, the California teacher called himself a 'friendly federal assassin' and leveled accusations against the Trump administration. Specifically, he alleged Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and accused him of pedophilia.
'I waited for you to read that. You are horrible people. He is a sick man, and you should be ashamed to air that nonsense,' Trump stated.
The president vehemently denied all insinuations, emphasizing that the press effectively becomes a mouthpiece for a radicalized criminal. 'I am not a rapist or a pedophile. They are trying to link me to things I have nothing to do with. You are spreading the ravings of a madman,' he added.
Investigators determined that Cole Thomas Allen, a graduate of the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a former game developer, had undergone deep radicalization in recent years. According to law enforcement, behind the mask of an ordinary teacher from Torrance lurked a person whose views grew increasingly aggressive. His social media contained numerous harsh statements against Christian values and the Republican Party.
His political stance was steeped in severe criticism of the current administration, which he called 'tyrannical,' with particular emphasis on the White House's policy toward Ukraine. Allen's affiliations also indicated sympathy for the president's opponents – he participated in 'No Kings' protests and made donations to Kamala Harris's 2024 election campaign.
Against the backdrop of the drama at the Washington Hilton hotel, the words of White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt gained particular poignancy. Just hours before the incident, while announcing Trump's speech, she said: 'Today's speech will be a classic Donald Trump speech – it will be funny, interesting, there will be shots.' In American political slang, this term has been used for decades to denote sharp jokes and biting remarks aimed at opponents. However, that evening, linguistic irony collided with brutal reality: instead of verbal volleys, real gunshots echoed through the hotel corridors. Social media quickly dubbed the announcement 'the worst prediction in White House history,' highlighting the eerie coincidence that turned a social dinner into a lockdown zone.
Source: podrobno.uz