A United States Secret Service agent was struck by a bullet in his protective gear during a shooting that took place tonight at the Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, held at the Washington Hilton in Washington D.C., three sources confirmed to CNN. The agent is expected to survive.
President Donald Trump was immediately evacuated from the stage by his security team after gunshots were heard. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump, and cabinet members were unharmed, according to sources cited by CNN in its live coverage of the incident.
Authorities identified the suspect as a 30-year-old man from California, who was arrested at the scene. "The shooter has been captured," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, where he also announced that he would return to the White House to hold a press conference and that the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days.
The veteran CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer was a direct witness to the shooting while he was outside the main hall of the hotel. "The shooter was clearly on the ground firing when I saw him; he was just a few meters away," Blitzer recounted. The journalist also confirmed that the suspect was inside the secured area of the event, beyond the magnetometers, raising questions about how he managed to gain access.
The Secret Service Countermeasures Assault Team was deployed to neutralize the threat while Trump was being evacuated. Expert Josh Campbell, a former FBI agent and CNN correspondent, explained that the agents "were prepared to respond to any potential threat to the president" and that "in this case, they did exactly what they were trained to do."
The journalist Sara Sidner, who attended the event, noted that the guests were not subjected to immediate bag checks or identification upon arrival. "It takes time to reach the magnetometers before they start screening people, before they check the bags. There will be many questions about security here," she warned.
The senior analyst from CNN Andrew McCabe described the event as one with a level of security "almost equivalent to that of a national security event," given that it gathers thousands of government leaders in one place. "That creates a huge vulnerability for all sorts of issues," he noted.
The president of the White House Correspondents' Association, Weijia Jiang, announced to those present that no civilians had been injured and confirmed the rescheduling of the event. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, was also safely evacuated, according to his office.
Among the most emotional moments of the night, Sidner captured Erika Kirk, widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk —who was murdered in September 2025 in Utah—, crying as she was escorted out of the venue. "Erika Kirk was in the hall. She ran through with tears," the journalist wrote on Instagram.
Trump confirmed that the dinner, which brought together approximately 2,600 attendees, will be rescheduled: “I have spoken with all the representatives in charge of the event and we will reschedule it within 30 days.”
Filed under: