Conspiracy theories are flooding social media after an attacker fooled security forces during the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner held Saturday in Washington. According to them, the attack was planned to restore sympathy to Donald Trump, at his lowest in the polls before the mid-term elections scheduled for November.

Published on: 04/27/2026 - 9:12 p.m. Modified on: 04/28/2026 - 12:00 p.m.

A few shots, then nothing. Cole Thomas Allen, 31, was arrested on Saturday April 25 after passing through security at the Hilton hotel where the traditional White House correspondents' dinner was held, notably in the presence of American President Donald Trump.

The latter, barely identified the danger, was quickly surrounded by Secret Service agents responsible for his security. On the hotel's video surveillance images, we see an armed man deceive the vigilance of agents stationed at a security gate before rushing towards the guests. Results: one lightly injured.

As tradition dictates, the tenant of the White House decided this year to play the game of "roasting", which consists of mocking the personalities present. Donald Trump, whose relations with the press have always been conflictual since his entry into politics, refused to submit to it during his first term and was also absent last year. A great first marred by an incident which caused panic and cut the festivities short.

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The sequence quickly made the rounds on the networks, fueling the endless conspiracy theories on which the American president sometimes tries to surf.

Around noon on Sunday, the word "staged" appeared more than 300,000 times on the X network, according to the New York Times, citing data from the analysis company TweetBinder.

Donald Trump is one of the rare American presidents to have been the target of several assassination attempts. Saturday evening's incident comes at a time when the Republican is at its lowest in the polls, in a context of stubborn inflation and war in the Middle East.

Butler's precedent

“His popularity rating is so low that he had to stage another assassination attempt to escape the correspondents’ dinner unscathed,” wrote a user on X, garnering 42,000 likes.

The disavowal is shared by former members of the MAGA sphere who have since distanced themselves from Trump, going so far as to question the veracity of the assassination attempt on Butler in July 2024, suggesting that the candidate's superficial wound was only an illusion, believing that one could not heal as quickly from a gunshot, and this despite the conclusions of the FBI, which established in July 2024 that the president's ear had indeed been hit by "a bullet, whole or fragmented".

Podcaster Joe Rogan and former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, once among Trump's staunchest supporters, both called Butler's attack a "hoax" intended to help the Republican win the November 2024 election. Former MAGA muse Marjorie Taylor Greene put a coin in the machine, going so far as to call the event "staged."

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Even more disturbing in the eyes of those who see this as a set-up: the reaction of White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who, shortly before the incident, announced on Fox News that Donald Trump was "very enthusiastic" and that his speech would be "classic Donald J. Trump". “There will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” she added, “so everyone should be connected, it will be great.”

An argument for the ballroom?

Many network users did not miss the prophetic dimension of this statement, seeing it as a "sacred coincidence", although the "shots" probably referred to the verbal jousts characteristic of the annual "roast".

Other commentators saw it as a hoax intended to promote the controversial reception room that Trump is currently building at the White House. “This would never have happened to the militarized ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” the main person was quick to declare on the Truth Social network.

Enough to fuel the speeches of his supporters, starting with the Republican representative of Florida Randy Fine, warning that “no one now had any interest in complaining about his ballroom at the White House”. Same story from ex-Fox News star Meghan McCain and several far-right TikTok accounts.

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Other theories have focused on failures in security protocol that allowed a man armed with multiple guns and knives to get so close to diners, with Butler's precedent in mind. “There are shots fired, the Secret Service is arriving and not immediately exfiltrating Trump,” says a user of X. Another points out that Vice President J.D. Vance was exfiltrated before Trump, in violation of Secret Service protocol.

“Crazy incompetence”

Even the main suspect was surprised by the ease with which he was able to enter the scene. In a manifesto allegedly sent to relatives, and which the New York Times obtained via a source close to the matter, Cole Thomas Allen describes the "insane" lack of security measures at the Hilton hotel in Washington, according to an official cited by Reuters. Ironically, it was in front of this same hotel that Ronald Reagan was the victim of an assassination attempt in 1981.

"The first thing I noticed upon entering the hotel was this feeling of arrogance. I was walking around with several guns and no one even considered that it could be a danger," he wrote.

The attacker's manifesto, published by the New York Post, presents its author as a "friendly federal assassin" and explains that he targeted members of the Trump administration, with the exception of Kash Patel, director of the FBI.

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"Why did I do this? I am a citizen of the United States. What my elected officials do has an impact on me. And I can no longer accept that a pedophile, thief and traitor, dirty my hands with his crimes," he adds.

Cole Thomas Allen also evokes Christian principles, believing he is acting on behalf of those whom the Trump administration is oppressing. “Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior: it is complicity in the crimes of the oppressor.”

Donald Trump has requested that a new date be found for the Correspondents' Dinner within 30 days. Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents' Association which organizes this annual gala, indicated for her part that the board of directors would decide if, and when, the event would be renewed.

This article has been adapted from English. Find the original article by clicking here.

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