President Donald Trump was uninjured and other top leaders were evacuated from the White House correspondents dinner in Washington on Saturday after security personnel responded to an unspecified threat.
Authorities said the incident occurred outside the ballroom where Trump and other guests were seated. The Secret Service and other law enforcement swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables.
A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter. No immediate details were available on injuries. All officials protected by the Secret Service were evacuated. Organizers attempted to resume the dinner.
Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be five to eight shots fired. The banquet hall, where hundreds of journalists, celebrities and national leaders awaited Trump’s remarks, was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately re-enter.
Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with many other administration leaders.
The event appeared set to resume after the disorder. Servers refolded napkins and refilled water glasses in preparation for Trump’s return. Another worker prepared the president’s teleprompter for the scheduled remarks.
Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro posted a video from the hotel after the incident, saying: “I have been taken out of the ballroom after the sound of the shots fired. The Secret Service is now in charge of this building, this hotel. I just spoke to Mayor Muriel Bowser. She is on her way and Police Chief Jeffery Carroll is on his way.”
Event Context
Trump’s attendance at Saturday’s annual dinner marked his first appearance as president, putting his administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.
The president arrived to an event where leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet—Triumph the Insult Comic Dog—in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together.
Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding light roasts about individual journalists.
The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama made jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.
Trump entered the banquet hall to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, pausing to laud White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Past dinners have featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group hired mentalist Oz Pearlman as entertainment.
Contentious Relationship
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal in court, and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.
On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
The WHCA president, CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, said the organization was fighting for all forms of the press that have a line to the American people. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust,” she said before the dinner convened.
A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the run-up to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Pete Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying “Journalism is dead.”