Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a Utah college campus seven months ago.
Saturday night, a left-wing activist got within gunfire range of the President of the United States.
And the shooter was so confident in the security gaps that he documented them – in writing – before he ever left California.
Cole Allen Called Himself the Friendly Federal Assassin
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, a California teacher and Caltech engineering graduate, sent what officials are calling a manifesto to family members minutes before opening fire at the Washington Hilton Saturday night.
The document ranked Trump administration officials as targets "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest."
He called himself "The Friendly Federal Assassin."
And then – in the same document – he switched tone entirely.
"What the hell is the Secret Service doing?" Allen wrote. "No damn security. Not in transport. Not in the hotel. Not in the event."
He told his family he could have walked in with a machine gun – what he called a "Ma Deuce" – and nobody would have noticed.
He wasn't entirely wrong.
Allen had traveled by train from Los Angeles to Washington, checked into the Washington Hilton as a hotel guest, and made it to a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives before law enforcement tackled him and exchanged gunfire.
A Secret Service officer was struck by a round.
He survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Trump Assassination Attempt Number Three and the Left Still Has No Answer
This was the third assassination attempt on President Trump since his 2024 campaign.
Thomas Matthew Crooks grazed Trump's ear at a Pennsylvania rally in July 2024.
Ryan Wesley Routh showed up at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach with a rifle months later.
In February, Secret Service shot and killed a 21-year-old who brought a shotgun and a gas canister to Mar-a-Lago.
Now Cole Allen – a Kamala Harris donor, a member of a group called "The Wide Awakes," and a "No Kings" protest attendee – made it inside the hotel where the President of the United States was sitting at dinner, armed with multiple weapons.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put it plainly on Meet the Press: Allen "did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the President."
Trump told Fox News: "When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. He was a very troubled guy."
Jeanine Pirro – U.S. Attorney for D.C. – announced charges Saturday night: two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence, one count of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
More charges are coming.
https://twitter.com/FlatracinGuruUK/status/2048387269766382007
This Is What the Left Built
Allen didn't materialize from nowhere.
The Network Contagion Research Institute published a report in early 2025 documenting what researchers called an "assassination culture" spreading through left-wing online spaces.
Left-wing authoritarianism, they found, was the single strongest predictor of support for political violence.
Allen fit the profile: progressive activist, anti-Trump social media presence, anti-Christian rhetoric, Kamala Harris donor, member of a social justice network.
His sister told investigators he regularly talked about doing "something" to fix what he saw as problems in the world.
Nobody stopped him.
His family finally called police in New London, Connecticut – but not until minutes before the attack.
RNC Chair Joe Gruters called it immediately: this was the inevitable result of a left that has normalized political violence.
He's not wrong.
Three years ago, leftists on social media celebrated Luigi Mangione for murdering a health insurance CEO.
Charlie Kirk was shot dead in September 2025 while giving a speech at Utah Valley University.
Congressional Republicans were targeted at a baseball practice in 2017.
The pattern is not ambiguous.
And Cole Allen understood the pattern well enough to write a manifesto explaining that the real failure wasn't his plan – it was the gaps he intended to exploit.
The dinner had 2,500 people inside. The hotel was still open to the public. And a man who called himself the Friendly Federal Assassin got close enough to shoot a Secret Service agent.
Trump was evacuated safely. Melania was evacuated safely.
This time – because a Secret Service agent happened to be wearing a bulletproof vest and Cole Allen happened to be a bad shot.
That is not a security strategy. That is luck. And luck runs out.
Sources:
- "The White House Correspondents' Dinner Suspect Sent a 'Manifesto' to His Family. CBS News Reviewed What's in It," CBS News, April 26, 2026.
- "What We Know About the Suspect in Shooting at White House Correspondents' Dinner," CBS News, April 26, 2026.
- "Cole Tomas Allen: Correspondents' Dinner Gunman Left Writings, Family Raised Concerns," NewsNation, April 26, 2026.
- "Who Is Cole Allen, Suspected White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooter," NPR, April 26, 2026.
- "Who Is Cole Tomas Allen? Caltech Grad, Teacher of the Month, Would-Be Assassin," Newsweek, April 26, 2026.
- "Timeline: Shootings, Threats Against Trump Over the Years," Axios, April 26, 2026.
- Joel Finkelstein et al., "NCRI Flash Brief: Assassination Culture," Network Contagion Research Institute, 2025.
- Shane Harris, "Third Trump Assassination Attempt – Left Must Acknowledge Its Violence Problem," AMAC Newsline, April 26, 2026.
