The bullet that struck a Secret Service agent during the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend was somehow deflected by his phone.
Suspect Cole Allen, 31, is alleged to have fired several shots at the Washington Hilton at the annual gala on the evening of April 25.
Though he fired multiple rounds, just one struck a person – a member of the Secret Service.
And miraculously, according to the Atlantic, the bullet was stopped by his phone and his vest.
President Trump later praised the officer’s bravery, stating from the White House: ‘He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job.
‘I just spoke to the officer and he’s doing great.’
Allen, of Torrance in California, reportedly charged a security checkpoint at the dinner armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives.
He was tackled by agents after a brief but terrifying exchange of gunfire in the hotel lobby.
Harrowing surveillance footage captured the moment Allen stormed past security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller and his wife Katie Miller are escorted out of the room by Secret Service agents at the shooting on Saturday
Members of law enforcement respond during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington
The ballroom, filled with the nation’s top journalists, Hollywood celebrities, and Cabinet members including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, became a scene of pure pandemonium.
Footage shows guests in tuxedos and evening gowns huddled under tables as Secret Service patrol the ballroom floor.
Trump, still wearing his tuxedo, addressed the nation just two hours later. ‘When you’re impactful, they go after you,’ he said defiantly. ‘They seem to think he was a lone wolf. We’re not going to let anybody take over our society.’
The White House has confirmed that the dinner will be rescheduled within 30 days, promising an event that is ‘bigger and better.’
But for now, Washington remains on high alert as it grapples with yet another attempt on the President’s life.
Authorities have now discovered that Allen wrote a chilling manifesto before he arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the dinner was being hosted.
Allen’s family members told law enforcement that he had sent them some of his disturbing writings before the attack, which prompted his brother to alert police. The writings did not specifically mention the dinner on Saturday, CBS News reported.
Allen’s brother notified the New London Police Department in Connecticut of the manifesto minutes before the attack, a White House official confirmed to CNN.
Allen was apprehended after he dashed past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton
Footage shows guests in tuxedos and evening gowns huddled under tables as Secret Service patrol the ballroom floor
Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he had heard about the report and wished the department had informed federal authorities earlier.
US Secret Service and Montgomery County Police also interviewed the suspect’s sister in Rockville, Maryland, a White House official told CNN.
Allen also allegedly mocked the lack of security at the event and on his journey to Washington DC in his chilling manifesto.
In it, he detailed his reasoning for the attack, his ‘rules of engagement’ and a ‘rant’ about how little security he encountered.
‘What the hell is the Secret Service doing?’ Allen wrote in a postscript to his manifesto.
‘I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing,’ he continued.
The radicalised teacher described a ‘sense of arrogance’ at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the dinner was held.
‘The security at the event is all outside… because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before,’ Allen wrote.
He said that the security was so lacking that, ‘if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed sh**.’
Allen wrote that national guardsmen would only be targets if they fired at him first. Members of the National Guard are pictured responding to the shooting
Allen wrote in his manifesto that Secret Service agents would only be targets if necessary and that he would try to incapacitate them ‘non-lethally if possible.’ A Secret Service agent is pictured shouting during the shooting
Ma Deuce is a nickname for the M2 Browning .50-calibre machine gun.
Earlier in his manifesto, Allen explained why he had attempted to break into the dinner and kill top Trump administration officials.
‘I am no longer willing to permit a paedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,’ he wrote, likely in reference to President Donald Trump. He said that as a citizen of the US, what his representatives do reflects on him.
The suspected shooter added that he had wanted to take action for a long time, ‘but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.’
He then went on to explain his ‘rules of engagement’ and outlined who his targets were.
‘Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest,’ Allen wrote. It is unclear why Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, was spared from his hit list.
Allen then listed other targets in order of priority. He wrote that Secret Service agents who get in his way were ‘targets only if necessary,’ and that he hoped to incapacitate them ‘non-lethally if possible.’
‘I hope they’re wearing body armour because centre mass with shotguns messes up people who *aren’t*,’ he wrote. Allen reportedly did later shoot one Secret Service agent in a bulletproof vest.
He also wrote that hotel security, Capitol police and national guardsmen would only be targets if they shot at him first.
Secret Service agents were seen with their guns drawn as they gave people orders
Hotel guests and employees were ‘not targets at all,’ he wrote.
‘In order to minimise casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls),’ Allen’s manifesto continued.
But he ominously added: ‘I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a paedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.’
In the manifesto, Allen also included a section of ‘Rebuttals to objections’ of him carrying out the shooting, and he apologised to family members, his students and the people he encountered on his way to carry out the shooting.
