Gunshots sent guests scrambling for cover at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday night, forcing security agents to rush U.S. President Donald Trump to safety.
The incident occurred at the Washington Hilton Hotel shortly after the welcoming remarks and during dinner, before Trump was due to speak at the glitzy annual media gala. According to witnesses, Secret Service agents quickly surrounded the president and evacuated him from the ballroom as guests ducked under tables amid confusion.
“Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended,” Trump later wrote on social media. He confirmed that the First Lady, the Vice President and all Cabinet members were safe and said he planned to hold a press conference at the White House.
The U.S. Secret Service said one suspect was in custody and that the shooting happened near the main security screening area outside the event hall. Tactical teams with guns drawn took up positions on the stage where Trump had been sitting moments earlier, while police flooded the hotel and helicopters hovered overhead.
A cabinet member, Mehmet Oz, told reporters he heard “shots fired upstairs” as he was being rushed out by security personnel. Organisers initially told guests the dinner — often dubbed Washington’s “Nerd Prom” — would continue, but it was later postponed.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner brings together hundreds of journalists, media executives and public officials to raise funds for scholarships and awards. This was the first time Trump attended the event as president, after repeatedly snubbing it in previous years amid his long running feud with the press.
Saturday’s scare is the latest in a series of security incidents involving Trump. In July 2024, he survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman killed a supporter and grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet. Months later, another man was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel protruding from bushes near a golf course where Trump was playing in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Washington Hilton itself has a grim history: it was the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on then president Ronald Reagan.
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