The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen of Southern California, contributed to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. On social media, he also slammed the First Amendment pocket square journalists were donning at last night’s dinner.
The suspected White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, signal boosted posts on the left-wing social media platform Bluesky arguing that President Donald Trump should be “immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes” and criticizing a “Freedom of the Press” pocket square that many journalists donned at last night’s dinner as “a white flag that no one can read unless you pull it out and wave it in defeat,” a Washington Free Beacon review found, suggesting he thought a stronger message of opposition to the president was called for.
“the president of the united states is personally looting the treasury to the tune of literally billions of dollars and that he is not being immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes against this country is a devastating indictment of every part of our political system,” read one of the posts, which Allen shared about a week before the dinner.
Allen shared another post from Gizmodo reporter Matt Novak criticizing a First Amendment pocket square that CNN anchor Jake Tapper promoted ahead of the dinner. Tapper said he would wear the accessory to remind Trump of the “importance of the 1st Amendment.” Novak responded, “Fittingly, a white flag that no one can read unless you pull it out and wave it in defeat.”
Allen’s Bluesky account was suspended and the posts removed early Sunday morning as the Free Beacon was reviewing the posts. He used the handle “coldforce,” a name that the 31-year-old teacher and video game developer from Southern California also used on other social media platforms, including YouTube and the streaming site Twitch, where Allen posted videos of the game Super Smash Bros. and stated his location as “SoCal.” Allen used the name “coldForce” and the handle “@CForce3000” on X, where he also posted extensively about Super Smash Bros., according to an ongoing Free Beacon review. Allen’s X account was also removed.
Allen’s Bluesky account was active from at least November 2024—when Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, who received a $25 campaign contribution from Allen—to the day before the dinner. In the 10 days leading up to the event, Allen reposted messages that called to “Abolish ICE,” referred to an immigration processing facility in South Texas as a “concentration camp,” and referred to Trump ally Elon Musk as “a Nazi.” Allen also shared an image of a protest against the war in Iran that took place in the U.S. Capitol Complex.
“I understand that it is deeply inconvenient for everyone with money and power that the richest man in the world is a Nazi, but the richest man in the world is a Nazi,” one of the Musk posts read. “It just defies comprehension that the world’s richest man is literally a hitlerian figure,” read another.
Allen was “armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives” when he charged a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel, which hosted the dinner and where Allen was staying, according to police. Law enforcement “exchanged gunfire” before apprehending Allen.
Trump and other federal officials were whisked away from the dinner, which Trump said would be rescheduled. Trump later held a news conference at the White House, describing Allen as a “lone wolf” who was “taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service.”
Trump survived two assassination attempts prior to the dinner, one at a rally in Butler, Pa., where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a shot that struck Trump’s ear, and one at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, where Ryan Routh, then 58, hid in the shrubbery while armed with a rifle as Trump golfed.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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