Cole Allen, the 31-year-old alleged gunman who tried to shoot up the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner attended by President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., Saturday night in an attempt to assassinate Trump and Trump officials, mocked the “incompetence” of the Secret Service in a manifesto sent to family members ten minutes before the attack, according to areport by New York Post reporter Steven Nelson. (Allen’s brothernotified New London, CT, police last nightabout the manifesto.)

An addition to President Trump, the Washington Hilton ballroom was filled with many high-ranking figures and officials including First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

In his manifesto, Allen wrote he was targeting the “highest ranking” official (Trump) on down, with an unexplained exception for Patel:“Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest”

Trump has expressed support for the handling of the attack by the Secret Service. Other senior administration officials have stated the security plan worked as the shooter did not gain entry to the ballroom where the dinner was being held and no protectees or guests were harmed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on whether the WHCD shooting incident was a security failure:

“To the contrary, this was a massive security success story….this suspect barely breached the perimeter,” Blanche tells@CNN.

— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch)April 26, 2026

Some dinner attendees have said they were surprised by perceived security failures, most notably former Obama and Biden administration official Symone Saunders Townsend:

Sanders Townsend notes that she has experience with Secret Service evacuations and protocol because of her with then-Vice President Biden: “And what happened tonight in terms of protocol, from what I know, having experienced it was not protocol.”Stephanie Ruhle notes the ticket…pic.twitter.com/9225hKJZrl

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro)April 26, 2026

Source: The Gateway Pundit