Suspect in Saturday evening’s shooting – Cole Tomas Allen – expected to be formally charged in court todayGood morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.The suspected gunman in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, from Torrance, California, is due to appear in court later today.He is expected to be formally charged with using a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Continue reading...
• Following an incident at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner where shots were fired, President Trump called for national unity and extended overtures to the press corps he had previously criticized as enemies of the people.
• The shooting occurred at the Washington Hilton, a venue that has hosted the black-tie event for over 50 years, with suspect Cole Thomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, taken into custody.
• Trump appeared calm following his evacuation and held a press briefing expressing dismay at the violent disruption, signaling a temporary thaw in his combative relationship with the mainstream media.
Alleged manifesto reportedly written by the suspect had Trump administration officials at top of listWhite House press dinner shooting aftermath – latest updatesInvestigators were looking into anti-Trump sentiment as being a motive for the attacker who sought to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC where the US president and top members of his administration were present.Officials have said that the shooter likely was targeting Donald Trump and other senior administration officials. “We do believe, based upon just a very preliminary start to understanding what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration,” Blanche said in a TV interview. Continue reading...
Pesident presses case for controversial $400m project following White House correspondents’ dinner shootingThe shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel gives new urgency to the project to construct a 1,000-seat ballroom at the White House, Donald Trump claimed after the incident on Saturday night.The US president pressed the case for his controversial ballroom initiative at the press conference he held at the White House on Saturday and a social media post on Sunday, after an armed attacker was arrested as he rushed towards the Hilton’s ballroom, where Trump was attending the White House Correspondents Association’s annual dinner. Continue reading...
US president says venue was ‘not a particularly secure building’ as man is held after shots fired at annual press dinnerHello and welcome to our live updates on US politics.A suspect is in custody following a shooting incident at last night’s White House correspondents’ dinner. Continue reading...
Men in tuxedos and women in dresses dove under tables, like a scene from a dozen Hollywood movies, but now it was happening to meShocking. Unnerving. Unpredictable. Violent. For a decade I have been following the twists and turns of Donald Trump’s America with the privilege of journalistic distance. On Saturday night I felt the darkness come viscerally close.Bang! Bang! What was that? Where was it? At 8.36pm panic and pandemonium reigned in the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton hotel. There were men running and cries of “Get down!” and “Stay down!” Continue reading...
President Donald Trump and other top leaders evacuated from the annual dinner after an unspecified threat The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was interrupted by loud bangs on Saturday evening, followed by immediate commotion. Donald Trump and Melania Trump were evacuated immediately as many journalists and their guests across the room ducked under tables in the Washington Hilton ballroom.While the situation continues to develop, there were reports that the Secret Service had guns drawn as they rushed the White House pool reporters out of the room and mentioned “shots fired”. Continue reading...
The event was interrupted by loud bangs and immediate commotion as the president and first lady were escorted outThe White House Correspondents’ Dinner was interrupted by loud bangs on Saturday evening, followed by immediate commotion. Donald Trump and Melania Trump were evacuated immediately as many journalists and their guests across the room ducked under tables in the Washington Hilton ballroom.While the situation continues to develop, there were reports that the Secret Service had guns drawn as they rushed the White House pool reporters out of the room and mentioned “shots fired”. Continue reading...
• President Trump is attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner, colliding politics and media in a highly charged event.
• Flashback highlights include Stephen Colbert roasting George W. Bush and Axios reporter Alex Thompson calling out colleagues.
• The dinner underscores ongoing media-political tensions, especially post-executive orders and impeachment talks.
• President Trump delivered an emergency announcement from the Oval Office, placing the US on high alert over unspecified national security threats.
• The speech called for public vigilance and federal coordination based on credible intelligence, stunning observers.
• Reactions poured in from Congress, the Pentagon, and global markets amid a developing situation.
• Federal judges blocked Trump administration actions that canceled asylum appointments for hundreds of thousands of migrants and terminated temporary legal status for up to 900,000 immigrants, ruling the administration acted unlawfully.
• A federal judge threw out a Justice Department lawsuit against Denver and Colorado sanctuary laws, determining the federal government cannot override state and local decisions on resource allocation.
• Judge Leon ruled Trump cannot restructure the White House ballroom without Congressional authorization, stating the president is a "steward" of the building, not its "owner"—a decision Trump disputed on Truth Social.
US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make ‘heavily fortified’ facilityDonald Trump’s administration is arguing that a judge’s order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling.In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judge’s order to suspend construction of the new facility is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff”. Continue reading...
• The White House touted a robust March 2026 jobs report on April 3, signaling accelerating economic momentum under President Trump.
• Specific figures highlight gains in employment and wage growth amid policy implementations.
• The data bolsters Trump's economic narrative ahead of midterm elections.
Ballroom is likely to get blessing from the National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by ex-Trump lawyerSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxDonald Trump’s White House ballroom project is likely to get a blessing from Washington planning authorities on Thursday, two days after a judge ruled work cannot proceed without Congress’s approval.The National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by one of Trump’s former lawyers, will deliberate and then vote on the “East Wing Modernization Project” on Thursday, according to a meeting agenda. Continue reading...
The National Capital Planning Commission had previously delayed the vote after thousands of negative public commentsHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The National Capital Planning Commission will meet this afternoon to decide on Donald Trump’s White House $400m ballroom project, after a federal judge halted construction earlier this week.House Republicans announced that they will pass a bill, advanced by the Senate last week, to end the record-breaking partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown after previously rejecting the measure.Democrats quickly celebrated the win with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying “House Republicans caved” after previously “[derailing] a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction”.Nasa’s lunar rocket successfully launched and the astronauts on the first crewed lunar rocket in more than 50 years received praise from across the US.Attorney general Pam Bondi’s job with the Trump administration is reportedly at risk. The president is said to be unhappy with Bondi’s performance as the head of the justice department and the controversy surrounding the Epstein files, according to a New York Times report.Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation.Supreme court justices appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s argument to restrict birthright citizenship for hundreds of thousands of children born to undocumented immigrants of temporary foreign nationals. Trump himself attended the hearing, widely considered to be the first time a sitting president has attended arguments at the supreme court. Continue reading...
US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft projectSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump’s $400m White House ballroom.The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project. Continue reading...
• President Trump extended the strike deadline on Iran's energy sector while warning that failure to accept current negotiation terms would result in "far greater military consequences," according to White House statements.
• The White House confirmed ongoing negotiations with Iranian leadership despite military operations continuing at historic levels, with Iranian leadership described by Trump as "desperate to negotiate."
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on March 25, 2026, that President Trump will hit Iran harder if Tehran does not accept military defeat.
• The US is closely tracking efforts to secure oil tanker passage through the Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian threats.
• This escalation threat underscores Trump's strategy to force Iran into capitulation, potentially prolonging the conflict without regime change.
• First Lady Melania Trump appeared with Figure AI's Figure 03 humanoid robot at a White House education and technology summit on March 25, 2026.
• The Sunnyvale-based startup's third-generation robot is designed for household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and dishwashing.
• CEO Brett Adcock hailed it as the first humanoid robot in the White House, spotlighting AI's role in education and innovation.
President also held on to record from his first term so sensitive only six people had access, says letter from leading Democrat on House judiciary committeeHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The White House says Donald Trump “did nothing wrong”, amid reports that he showed off a classified map on a 2022 flight to his New Jersey golf club.Violence continued across much of the Middle East a day after Donald Trump said the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war in the region soon. Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes continued to carry out strikes across Tehran and on other targets in the Islamic Republic. More here.Democrats managed to flip a seat in the Florida state house in the district that is home to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Emily Gregory, a Democrat, defeated Republican Jon Maples, who had an endorsement from the US president, in the special election in Florida’s 87th state house district. The Associated Press called the race on Tuesday evening, with Gregory, a public health expert and small business owner, leading by more than 2 percentage points. More here.Donald Trump on Tuesday swore in Markwayne Mullin as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), while Senate Republicans unveiled a compromise that would restart funding to most of the agency but appears to exclude reforms to immigration enforcement Democrats have demanded. More here.Donald Trump has described voting by mail as “cheating” at an event in Memphis, Tennessee, just days after casting a mail‑in ballot himself. “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all,” the US president said on Monday, in remarks to a roundtable on his administration’s crime taskforce. More here.Workers with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are reeling from the White House’s deployment of immigration law enforcement into airports as TSA workers enter their sixth week without pay as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown continues. More than 400 TSA workers have quit since the shutdown began in February, with major US airports reporting high call-out rates among workers, leading to longer security wait times. More here.The California governor, Gavin Newsom, backtracked on earlier remarks likening Israel to an “apartheid state” in a new interview with Politico published on Tuesday. In the interview, the Democrat, who is widely expected to launch a presidential bid in 2028, said that when he used the term three weeks ago, he meant it to apply to Israel’s future should it continue on its present trajectory. More here. Continue reading...
Monument made from shattered pieces of original statue tossed into Baltimore’s inner harbor by protesters in 2020US politics – live updatesA statue of Christopher Columbus has been installed in the grounds of the White House in the latest attempt by Donald Trump to position the controversial explorer as a foundational hero of the US.The president had the 13ft statue, which weighs one ton, placed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is a replica of a monument to Columbus that was torn down and tossed into Baltimore’s inner harbor by protesters in the city amid widespread anti-racism protests in 2020. Continue reading...
