Trump rushed offstage at White House correspondents’ dinner after shots fired

US President Donald Trump was rushed offstage at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening after shots were fired.

Trump, who was unharmed, had been sitting at the top table at the black-tie event at the Washington Hilton when multiple gunshots were heard around 8.30pm, shortly after the event got under way.

As Secret Service agents ran into the packed ballroom, attendees dropped to the floor and hid under tables as the US president, first lady Melania Trump and vice-president JD Vance were ushered off the stage.  

City officials later confirmed that a suspect had run towards the ballroom’s entrance, but was quickly apprehended by Secret Service officers. Trump said at a media briefing later at the White House that a Secret Service officer outside the ballroom was shot in the vest, but was “doing great”. The suspect and wounded agent were being treated at a local hospital, according to Washington mayor Muriel Bowser.

Police said the suspect was carrying a shotgun, handgun and a number of knives, and was registered as a guest at the hotel.

The US president said at the briefing that the suspect was a “very sick person” from California and was likely a “lone wolf”. An image of the suspect was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account.

The suspect was later charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, and was due to appear in court on Monday. Officials gave no indication of his possible motive.

Trump had earlier praised Secret Service and law enforcement officers on Truth Social.

“They acted quickly and bravely,” the US president said.

While Trump pushed to resume the evening’s programme, law enforcement shut the event down at about 9:40pm.

“I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON’ but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement,” he said. “Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again.”

Trump promised later that the correspondents’ dinner would be rescheduled within the next 30 days. “We’re not going to let anyone cancel our society,” the president told journalists in the White House briefing room.

It is a long-held tradition for US presidents to attend the annual dinner, established to celebrate the country’s press freedoms, but this was the first time Trump was there as president.

The room was filled with thousands of journalists and leading figures in Washington. Senior Congressional leaders and members of cabinet including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, acting Department of Justice chief Todd Blanche, FBI director Kash Patel and US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent were whisked out of the main entrance after the incident took place. Former Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick were also in the audience.

Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing political activist who was assassinated last year, was also in the ballroom when the shots were fired outside.

The Washington Hilton, the sprawling hotel complex in north-west DC where the incident took place, was the location of the attempted assassination of former US president Ronald Reagan in 1981.

There was a large police presence in the area outside the hotel, as well as a small number of protesters outside the building. Yet some at Saturday night’s event described relatively lax security to enter the hotel complex, with attendees simply required to present an invite to one of the pre-parties held on various other floors of the building. “Essentially if people were dressed up they were let in,” said one attendee.

Trump survived an assassination attempt on the campaign trail ahead of his 2024 presidential election win, when a bullet skimmed his ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Two months after the Butler shooting, a man was arrested for attempting to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course.

The US president acknowledged in the press briefing that politics was “a dangerous profession”.

“It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran,” he added.

Trump and his allies have escalated their critiques of the press in recent weeks, leading to rising tensions ahead of the event. Some members of the media, such as the Huffington Post, decided to skip the dinner altogether, while others wore First Amendment themed-pins as a form of protest against the Trump administration.

Trump this week posted to Truth Social that he was “winning a War, BY A LOT”, but that “the Anti-America Fake News Media is rooting for Iran to win”.

The Wall Street Journal, which was set to receive an award at the dinner for its story on the birthday card Trump reportedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein, was, according to another post by the US president this week, “just another failing political ‘RAG!”

Trump said at the White House briefing that the ballroom was unified by the incident. “There was a tremendous amount of love and coming together,” the US president said.

He also thanked the media for “being very responsible” for their coverage of the incident.