Related videos:
The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his solidarity this Sunday with Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump following the shooting that occurred on Saturday night during the 105th Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington D.C.
In a message posted on his X account, Lula condemned the attack with direct words: “My solidarity with President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and everyone present at the dinner with correspondents in Washington. Brazil vehemently repudiates last night's attack. Political violence is an affront to the democratic values that we all must protect.”
The gesture carries particular political weight given the context of heightened diplomatic tension between Brazil and the United States in recent months.
Just days before the incident, Lula had labeled Trump a "war lord" during a speech at the UN Security Council in Barcelona, where he also demanded an end to the embargo against Cuba. On April 19, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico issued a joint statement calling for respect for Cuba's "territorial integrity," in open contradiction to Washington's policy.
The shooting occurred on Saturday at 8:36 p.m. Eastern Time, when Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old resident of Torrance, California, burst in armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and several knives at the hotel where the event was being held with approximately 2,600 attendees.
Allen, who had previously registered as a hotel guest, fired between five and eight times before being neutralized and apprehended by Secret Service agents and the Washington D.C. police.
Trump was evacuated from the stage at 8:33 p.m., three minutes before the gunfire started, along with Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and several cabinet members, including Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard.
A Secret Service agent was lightly injured after being hit by a bullet that was stopped by his bulletproof vest. There were no fatalities among the attendees.
Trump returned to the White House around 9:45 p.m. and held a press conference early this Sunday morning. In his usual tone, the president stated: “No one told me this job was so dangerous”.
Interim Attorney General Todd Blanche noted that preliminary findings indicate that Allen targeted Trump and high-ranking officials of his administration. Trump himself described the suspect as a "lone wolf" motivated by "strong, anti-Christian hatred," according to the manifesto that Allen left before the attack.
The Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who was among the attendees, reported that she took shelter under a table upon recognizing the gunfire due to her experience as a war journalist.
Other Latin American leaders also reacted. Argentine President Javier Milei described the event as a "new attempt on Trump's life," while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X: "Violence must never be the path."
Cole Thomas Allen will appear before a judge in Washington this Monday and is facing charges for gunfire, illegal possession of firearms, and assault.
Filed under: