Correspondents dinner shooting unleashes conspiracy theories
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
The most common of these theories claim the shooting was orchestrated in an effort to boost President Trump’s plans for a new White House ballroom.
It isn’t surprising that rampant speculation would instantly surround an act of apparent politically-motivated violence, but this incident suggests that voices on the left are increasingly engaged with conspiracy theories.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's considered this where every day we go deep on one big news story. |
| 0:04.9 | At this moment, few hard details are known about what authorities are calling an assassination attempt on President Trump |
| 0:10.8 | at the White House Correspondents' dinner in Washington Saturday night. |
| 0:14.2 | But here is what we do know. |
| 0:15.7 | At approximately 8.36 tonight, an individual charged a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint here in the lobby area of the |
| 0:23.4 | hotel. He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. As he ran through that checkpoint |
| 0:30.4 | members of law enforcement from the United States Secret Service intercepted that individual. |
| 0:35.0 | That's Jeff Carroll, interim chief of police for the Metropolitan |
| 0:37.6 | Police Department, speaking Saturday. The individual, he referenced, has now been identified as |
| 0:43.1 | 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California. Meanwhile, inside the ballroom, Trump, Vice President |
| 0:49.4 | Vance, Cabinet members, lawmakers, and press were having dinner, and guests heard muffled popping sounds. |
| 0:57.3 | NPR's Domenico Montanaro was also there. |
| 1:00.0 | Well, a really disorienting moment here at the White House Correspondents Center, |
| 1:03.3 | the first time that President Trump has been at a White House Correspondence Center, |
| 1:07.5 | and we wound up with shots fired inside. |
| 1:12.9 | I ended up hitting the ground with everybody else. |
| 1:16.3 | Among them was Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He spoke to NPR Monday. |
| 1:20.4 | We were down on the floor for around two to three minutes before people began to get up, |
| 1:25.4 | and we were told that, you know, there was somebody who they |
| 1:30.2 | got. |
| 1:30.9 | Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States, |
| 1:38.0 | with the defendant making clear what his intent was. |
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