Michael Glantz, a veteran media talent agent, became one of the unexpected figures in the attack on Donald Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner last Saturday, when cameras captured him calmly eating his salad while hundreds of guests dove under tables at the sound of gunfire.
The incident occurred on Saturday, April 25, during the 105th Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton, when an armed man burst into the hotel lobby and fired between five and eight shots near the metal detectors, according to the New York Times.
The video of Glantz—sitting, with white hair and glasses, bringing the fork to his mouth with absolute serenity while Secret Service agents shouted around him—went viral in just a few hours and earned him the nickname "the salad man" on social media.
The next day, Glantz humorously explained his reaction in an interview with WHCInsider: "I was born and raised in New York. I wasn't scared at all. I didn't want to miss the show."
He added two more reasons for not bending down: "I have a bad back. I couldn't get down to the ground. I'm hygienic. I wasn't going to put my tuxedo on a dirty floor."
Glantz currently works at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of the leading entertainment agencies in the United States, and has over 35 years of experience in the media industry.
He began his career in 1978 as an intern at WCBS-TV and went on to work with networks such as MTV and NBC News before co-founding the boutique agency Headline Media Management in 2004, which represented figures like Wolf Blitzer, Meredith Vieira, and Brad Nessler.
Among his most notable clients is CNN presenter Wolf Blitzer, which makes it a remarkable irony that Glantz was present at an event covered precisely by the journalists he represents.
Glantz's moment wasn't the only viral detail of the night: a video also circulated showing a woman in a black fur coat collecting wine bottles from abandoned tables while everyone else was evacuating the hall.
The attacker was identified as Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California, who left a manifesto in his hotel room calling himself the "Friendly Federal Killer" and justifying the attack as an ideological action against the Trump administration.
Trump was evacuated unharmed by the Secret Service along with First Lady Melania, Vice President JD Vance, and other senior officials. A Secret Service agent survived thanks to his bulletproof vest; there were no fatalities or civilian injuries.
This was the third assassination attempt against Trump in less than two years, following the incidents in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, and West Palm Beach, Florida, in September of that same year.
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