Dinner

Revised indictment alleges Cole Allen, accused of targeting Trump, assaulted federal officer with deadly weaponCole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman at the White House correspondents’ dinner, is facing an additional related charge for assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, federal authorities announced on Tuesday.The new charge, which formally accuses Allen of firing at a US Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, is part of a new four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington. The other three counts are charges Allen previously faced: attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and illegal transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines. Continue reading...

Cole Allen remains in custody after being charged with attempting to assassinate Donald TrumpHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The suspect from the 25 April shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has a hearing covering the conditions of his confinement scheduled for later today.Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, has been hospitalised and is in a “critical but stable condition”, his spokesperson said on Sunday evening. Ted Goodman, the spokesperson, posted on social media: “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”Donald Trump’s approval rating has hit its worst level during his two terms in office, with more than six in 10 Americans disapproving of the president’s job performance. Trump’s rating is at its worst on the cost of living and other economic issues since launching his deeply unpopular war against Iran in February, which has plunged the global economy into an oil crisis and sent gas prices rocketing to a four-year high.Trump has announced that the US will “guide” ships trapped by the Iran war out of the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, and claimed his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran. Trump wrote on his social media site that the operation, called “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is to travel to Rome this week for a visit reportedly aimed at thawing frosty relations with the Italian government and the Vatican. Rubio is scheduled to be in the Italian capital on Thursday and Friday, which will also mark the one-year anniversary of the papacy of Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff.Pete Hegseth’s purges of senior officers with impeccable reputations have caused alarm at the Pentagon, raising questions about whether a supposed last line of defense against the impulsive whims of a president with access to the nuclear codes still exists.Trump is attempting to select his own citizenry and control who can vote by gathering the personal details of all Americans, Arizona’s top election official has warned. Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, fears that the Trump administration’s active efforts to forcibly extract voter files from 30 states including Fontes’s own are part of a bigger plan to gather vital information on all US citizens into a centralised database. Continue reading...

US attorney says ‘we can establish’ pellet from defendant’s gunshot was ‘intertwined with fiber of vest’ of federal agentThe US government has evidence that a federal agent was shot by the suspect during an alleged recent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Sunday.“We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” Pirro said on CNN. Continue reading...

After correspondents’ dinner shooting, administration has rushed to capitalize in pursuit of its political goalsLess than 72 hours after a man was arrested for trying to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House, the justice department rushed to court to make an extraordinary filing.The subject of the emergency was a lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to halt the construction of a new White House ballroom. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that construction had to stop, though an appeals court later paused that ruling. Continue reading...

• A suspect was charged on Monday with attempting to assassinate President Trump after storming the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with multiple weapons in April 2026. • The incident has intensified partisan disputes over political rhetoric and violence, with both parties blaming the other's language for contributing to the escalation. • The alleged assassination attempt has shocked Washington and drawn comparisons to historical political violence, prompting discussions about security and the current political climate.

Attorneys, citing new evidence including selfies, filed a motion to detain Cole Tomas Allen until his trial Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxFederal prosecutors provided in a filing Wednesday the most detailed account to date of Cole Tomas Allen’s alleged weeks-long plan to kill Donald Trump and several members of his cabinet who had joined more than 2,500 members of the Washington press corps for their annual White House correspondents’ dinner.The motion, aimed at keeping Allen detained and filed by the US attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, includes two selfies of the alleged shooter standing in front of a mirror in his hotel room in a black suit, a slight smirk crossing his face. He is kitted out with two firearms and multiple knives tucked into his belt. Prosecutors allege they are the same weapons that were confiscated from Allen after the attack. Continue reading...

A tidal wave of conspiracy theories hit social media as soon as news broke that shots were fired at the Washington Hilton hotel during the White House Correspondents' dinner Saturday. That was to be expected, but some say the dynamics are shifting, with theories coming from liberals and progressives as well as right-wing accounts that are critical of U.S. President Donald Trump.