The president Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday night that the shooter involved in the incident during the Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner has been apprehended, following a security incident that required the evacuation of the stage at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington D.C.
Minutes after the incident, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social at 9:17 PM: "What a night in D.C. The Secret Service and law enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted swiftly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended."
In the same message, Trump recommended that the event go ahead: "I have recommended that the show proceed, but I will fully follow the guidance of law enforcement. They will make a decision shortly."
The official acknowledged that the evening would no longer be as planned: "Regardless of that decision, the night will be very different from what we had in mind, and we will simply have to repeat it."
According to initial reports from CBS News and CBS58, the shots were fired outside or in the perimeter of the hall, and no injuries were reported among the more than 2,000 attendees, who took cover under the tables while the Secret Service responded.
Alongside Trump, the First Lady Melania Trump and the Vice President JD Vance were evacuated from the stage.
The incident occurred on a night of special significance: this was the first time that Trump attended as the sitting president the Correspondents' Dinner, breaking his own pattern of boycotting the event during his first term (2017-2021) and in 2025, the longest presidential absence since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
The Washington Hilton, the venue for the event, has a historical precedent in terms of presidential security: it was there that John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.
The incident adds to a series of security threats against Trump in recent months. In February of this year, an armed man was shot by the Secret Service while attempting to breach the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. Months earlier, in September 2024, Ryan Routh aimed a rifle at a Secret Service agent at a golf club near the same residence, a crime for which he was sentenced to life in prison.
The president of the White House Correspondents' Association, Weijia Jiang, had stated before the incident that the dinner "reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy and reminds us what a free press means for this country."
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