President Donald Trump said Sunday that the gunman who attacked the White House Correspondents' Association dinner harbored a deep hatred of Christians, pointing to the suspect's own manifesto as evidence that the assault at the Washington Hilton was religiously motivated.
"The guy is a sick guy when you read his manifesto. He hates Christians. That's one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred," Trump said during an appearance on Fox News's The Sunday Briefing. "He had a lot of hatred in his heart.... It was a religious thing."
The remarks came one day after 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen allegedly charged a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, shot a Secret Service officer, and began running toward the main room where the president and other administration officials were gathered. Allen was arrested at the scene. The Washington Examiner reported that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News the suspect appeared to have been targeting officials in the administration, likely including the president himself, though investigators are still probing the situation.
Allen, described as a part-time teacher from Torrance, a Los Angeles suburb, graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He later obtained a master's in computer science from California State University in 2025. His LinkedIn profile listed him as a member of a Christian fellowship at Caltech, a detail that complicates any simple ideological profile but does not contradict the anti-Christian animus Trump described from the manifesto.
Trump also referenced reports that Allen's own family tried to alert law enforcement before the attack. "I think his sister, or his brother, actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was, he was a very troubled guy," the president said.
The suspect's brother reportedly contacted the New London Police Department in Connecticut about Allen's plan before the incident. Trump acknowledged the tip but expressed frustration that the information had not reached the security team at the dinner.
"I heard about the New London situation, and I wish they would have told us about it a little bit, but it is what it is," Trump said.
That gap, between a family's warning and the Secret Service detail guarding a president, is one of the most pressing unanswered questions from Saturday's attack. The suspect's political donation history has also drawn attention in the days since the shooting.
Trump praised the agents who brought down Allen, comparing the suspect's charge toward the ballroom to an NFL running back. "I thought great, great talent was displayed last night, bravery, but talent, he came in running like he was an NFL running back. Frankly, it was very fast, and they just stopped him cold," Trump said. "And there was no question. He never even came close to getting by the doors or getting through the doors."
The wounded officer survived because a bulletproof vest stopped the shot. Trump told reporters on Saturday that the gunman had charged the checkpoint armed with multiple weapons and was taken down quickly. National Review reported that law enforcement believed Allen acted alone and that the event was canceled and evacuated under protocol despite Trump initially wanting it to continue.
The agents who ran toward the gunfire did so while working without pay. The Department of Homeland Security had been unfunded for more than two weeks during a partial government shutdown at the time of the attack. Just The News reported that the shooting renewed pressure on Congress to reach a budget deal for DHS.
Rep. Juan Ciscomani put it bluntly: "Secret Service agents ran toward danger last night to protect and put their lives on the line for others, while serving under an unfunded DHS. They did their job. The House has done our job. Senate must do theirs."
That agents tasked with guarding the president had to do so without a funded department tells you everything about the Senate's priorities. The human toll of the evening's chaos extended well beyond the Secret Service detail.
The Secret Service stopped Allen before he reached the ballroom. But how he got as far as he did is another matter. Fox News reported that Daily Beast editor Hugh Dougherty described alarming lapses in security at the Washington Hilton in the hours before the dinner.
"How on earth could someone with a disassembled long gun check into a room at a hotel where the president was going to speak? I can answer that: Nobody even looked at my luggage on Friday afternoon," Dougherty said. "No magnometers, no hand checks, no I.D. checks. Nothing."
Dougherty said he moved freely between the hotel's ground floor and the 10th floor without screening or credential verification. Simply flashing a ticket, possibly even a photocopy, was enough to approach the dinner area. If that account is accurate, it helps explain how a man with multiple weapons could position himself inside a building where the president was scheduled to speak.
Trump himself alluded to the hotel's structural vulnerabilities. "It's really what you need. I mean, you can't have a thousand rooms. It is a very big hotel on top of the ballroom. And people come down in the elevator and they're right next to the ballroom," he said.
Questions about surveillance capabilities and threat detection are likely to intensify as investigators examine whether the New London tip was shared across agencies and whether hotel-level screening met Secret Service standards.
Within hours of the shooting, the administration moved to turn the attack into an argument for the president's planned $400 million White House ballroom, a project that has been tied up in litigation since December. Newsmax reported that the Justice Department told the National Trust for Historic Preservation to dismiss its lawsuit, arguing the Washington Hilton is unsafe for events involving the president.
"It's time to build the ballroom," Blanche posted on X. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate went further in a written statement, arguing the ballroom "will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton."
Trump framed the project in similar terms on Fox News. "Military and Secret Service have wanted [the ballroom] for many years, and I'm getting it built. And, the one good thing is that now everybody knows how badly needed it is," he said. The ballroom includes a military bunker as part of its national-security enhancements and has been under construction for months, though a federal appeals court recently allowed work to continue while the legal challenge is reviewed.
Whether the shooting settles the legal fight remains to be seen. But the administration's argument is straightforward: the president should not have to leave the White House grounds and rely on a commercial hotel's security apparatus to attend a dinner.
The investigation is still in its early stages. Blanche cautioned that the probe continues. Several critical questions remain open: What exactly does Allen's manifesto say? What charges will be filed? Did the New London Police Department share the family's tip with federal authorities before Saturday, and if not, why not?
AP News photo coverage confirmed Secret Service agents escorted Trump off the stage after the shooting and that law enforcement restrained Allen at the scene. Trump later appeared at the White House press briefing room. The president was safe. But the broader picture, of a family that tried to sound the alarm, a hotel with reported screening gaps, and a federal security apparatus operating on no paycheck, is far from reassuring.
Trump described Allen as "a very troubled guy" and observed that recent would-be assassins "seem to be high-IQ people." The president's focus on the anti-Christian content of the manifesto will draw debate. But the facts already on the table, a written manifesto, a family warning to police, a suspect who armed himself and charged a presidential security perimeter, point to a planned act with a specific target.
Ongoing federal investigations into security threats around Washington only add to the urgency of getting answers about what went wrong in the chain between a family's warning and a gunman's charge.
When a suspect's own relatives call the police beforehand and the attack still happens, the system didn't work. The Secret Service agents did. The system around them did not.
