by WorldTribune Staff, April 26, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
[Karma is a b-tch is a modern turn on an ancient verity: "What goes around comes around." An estimated 90 percent of the D.C. media elites jammed into the Washington Hilton ballroom on April 25 detest President Donald Trump and are largely to blame for motivating ideologically committed individual like the latest would-be assassin to take action. And then the most valued social event of the year in our nation’s capital got canceled before the main course. What went wrong?]
Human Events editor Jack Posobiec: "What happened tonight is a stark reminder. The Bolsheviks want to kill us all. They don’t care about our disagreements. They don’t care about our squabbling. They want to kill us and our families and they will laugh about it. The evil is real."
Would-be assassin Cole Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology, commonly known as Caltech, in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He obtained his master’s of science degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in May 2025.
After graduating from Caltech, Allen worked for a year as a mechanical engineer before becoming an independent video game developer and later also a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a company dedicated to helping high schoolers get into college, according to a LinkedIn profile.
Acquaintances in California described him as intelligent bordering on "genius" and that they "would never expect" he would be involved in such violence.
Talk radio host Chris Plante noted: "A registered Democrat who donated to Kamala Harris tried to kill President Trump and members of his administration last night. They killed Charlie Kirk last year. They’ve targeted Christian churches and schools, and abort millions of babies. The Democrat Party is a violent criminal death cult."
Thomas Geraghty posted to social media: "There is an elephant in the room, and it's not a Republican elephant. It's an ideological one. 'Some of these people have high IQs, but they're nuts,' said president Trump of our present crop of assassins. Cole Allen has been a notable educator commended for his teaching abilities. He worked in education, a notorious profession these days for Left leaning ideas and lived in California, a place where 'You can't swing a cat witout hitting' a socialist.
"Allen is at war. He proved that by his actions. But what army has Allen joined. What cause is he willing to risk his life to serve? This is the question the press is unwilling to ask. So much Marxism has seeped into Democrat politics that to examine the ideology involved would be offering evidence which indicts the Democrat Party.
"Where there is any hint of Marxist revolutionary ideas, the press turns a blind eye. They have trained themselves not to see it, and anyone at a major news outlet learns that this topic is Verboten. Playright, Arthur Miller, wrote a play call 'The Crucible' which was an allegory used to accuse Congress and Republicans of creating an enemy (Communists) who did not really exist, but were imaginary Witches. From this time the U.S. Press was under a new code of hands off anything that looked like an expose of communist activities. And we live with this legacy today. No matter how obvious the Marxist revolutionary ideas show themselves to be present, the press will not discuss or investigate this aspect of the attacks on our institutions, or on our political figures, they will default to an explanation of 'crazy people' as a motive."
Indeed, the Left's vanguard in media was absolutely irate that Trump had been invited to be the headliner at an event they stage to pat themselves on the back for almost entirely negative coverage of the president. Many in the room on Saturday work or worked for outlets that won Pulitzers for their knowingly false reports on Trump-Russia.
CNN talking head S.E. Cupp slammed the White House Correspondents' Association for inviting Trump to
their party.
"The Correspondents’ Association was trying to sort of mend some fences with a guy who wants us dead, figuratively. Figuratively, he wants journalism dead," Cupp said. "It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me."
Cupp made the remarks about 20 minutes prior to the shooting during a panel discussion with CNN anchors John Berman and Laura Coates as the network previewed Trump's arrival.
"Journalism is throwing a party. Journalism is celebrating journalism at this party," Cupp said. "Journalism, for some reason, invited Brendan Carr, FCC chair, who is threatening to revoke the licenses of broadcast networks, Pete Hegseth, who removed journalists from the Pentagon, and Donald Trump, who attacks us on the regular."
What Cupp and her cohorts consider "journalism" is another story.
CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter, yes, he's back, said some veteran "journalists" had opposed the decision to welcome Trump to the event.
"You have some veteran journalists on the outside telling journalists they should boycott this," Stelter said.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Trump "was ready to put on a show.
"On his way to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday evening, the president told associates that he was excited to deliver his speech, calling it the 'hottest ticket in town,' according to a person familiar with the matter. He and his advisers had packed his prepared remarks with jokes, including jabs at members of his own cabinet such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," the Journal stated.
Trump’s attendance, his first as president, marked an uneasy truce with a press corps that his administration had spent years antagonizing and sometimes even threatening with rhetoric and legal action.
The dinner—known in media circles as “nerd prom”—is an annual black-tie event at the iconic wing-shaped 1960s-era Washington Hilton that brings together some of the biggest names in journalism and politics. While past presidents had routinely attended, Trump didn’t participate during his first term.
Of the hooting, Trump said later Saturday that he initially thought a tray had been dropped on the floor, but his wife worried it sounded more serious. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was seated near the front of the room, first thought, “someone is causing trouble again,” he said. His next thought was of a president who had already been shot before.
The Journal noted
"Agents spread out across the ballroom, standing on tables and holding their weapons. Cabinet secretaries were rushed out of the room, and a security staffer called out for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s wife, Kelly. Once he found her, he pulled her out from under a table and removed her from the room.
A waitress in the room cried out in Spanish, “I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die in this room.”
Attendees hid under tables and behind chairs. Wine spilled and serving trays clattered to the ground as people screamed and sobbed. Video footage from the event showed senior administration officials and cabinet secretaries, including White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Patel and Kennedy, crouching down.
Shortly before 10 p.m., most people had filtered out of the ballroom, leaving behind a scene of a party interrupted. Tables were covered with partially eaten starter salads and half-eaten bread rolls. Red napkins were scattered on the floor. Some guests left with bottles of wine tucked under their arms.
Around 10:30 p.m. the president posted a photo on social media of the alleged shooter face down on the hotel carpet.
Meanwhile, protesters had gathered outside the Washington Hilton before and after the event.
As guests trickled out late Saturday, a man waved a cardboard sign that read, “Death to All of Them.”
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