A Few Lessons from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

This article by Global Geneva's America's editor was first published as part of William Dowell's Substack column A Different Place.

For a few minutes on the evening of April 26, 2026, journalists and Washington celebrities attending the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner had a chance to feel what it’s like to be under hostile fire from an unknown gunman. It’s safe to say that no one liked the experience.

The remarkable thing, considering that the room was filled with crack journalists, is that hardly anyone made an instant comparison of their own emotional reaction to the thoughts that must have been running through the minds of millions of Iranians and Gaza Palestinians, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rained hellfire and damnation on them during “Operation Epic Fury.”

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt during the attack, but the same cannot be said for the U.S.-Israeli-led action in the last few months. When a direct hit from a U.S. ballistic missile killed nearly 100 elementary school children at the Shajereh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran, the reason for their deaths was left in limbo as the Pentagon refused to acknowledge responsibility.

In the end, they will very likely be explained away as regrettable collateral damage, the result of a Pentagon targeting error. The Trump administration had canceled the military department that was supposed to double-check targets, because our new “Secretary of War,” Pete Hegseth, felt that the military was acting too cautiously out of concern for civilian casualties. Empathy is not a strong suit in Washington these days.

Empathy is not a strong point in Trump's Washington

When one’s own life is on the line, the situation looks quite different. The White House, not surprisingly, denounced the attack as driven by hatred of the American system, exacerbated by the uncompromising rhetoric of the Democratic Party. The president took it as yet another argument in favor of his tasteless plan to attach a gargantuan ballroom to the White House.

There is no question that Cole Tomas Allen, the normally mild-mannered gunman who tried unsuccessfully to break into the dinner, intended to cause harm. He wielded a shotgun, a pistol, and three knives, and he shot a Secret Service agent in the chest at point-blank range. Thanks to a bulletproof vest, the agent survived and was quickly released from the hospital. Before launching his Quixotic attack, Allen took selfies of himself, heavily armed, in his hotel room. One had the impression of a video game fanatic, imagining himself in a game of “Call of Duty,” who had finally decided to turn fantasy into reality.

Cole Tom Allen photographs himself in a hotel mirror before his failed attempt to turn fantasy into reality

When Allen tried to rush through a metal detector and then ran past a number of security agents, the agents unleashed a fusillade of gunfire. None of the bullets hit Allen, but in the confusion, he toppled to the ground and was quickly restrained. The real terror at the dinner came from SWAT teams brandishing submachine guns and looking for possible targets among the audience of reporters and celebrities. The fear experienced by the crowd was real, even if the danger was not.

What Allen really hoped to accomplish is less clear. He referred to himself in social media posts as “Cold Warrior” and “Friendly Federal Assassin.” Ten minutes before the failed assault, Allen sent a note to his family explaining what he saw as his mission. The parents immediately informed the FBI, which probably saved Allen’s life, even though the rest of it is likely to be spent in prison. The full text of the note, referred to by the press as a “manifesto,” is difficult to find on the Internet. The White House press office admonished reporters for bringing it up. It is, however, revealing.

Allen's hard-to-find 'Manifesto'

Far from filled with hatred, the first half of the note consists of no less than six apologies to family, friends, and acquaintances for having “abused their trust” and having lied in order to carry out his doomed plan.

Allen then gives a somewhat garbled account of his reasoning. As an American, he finds it intolerable that his representatives in the government are committing crimes in his name. He refers to the representative that he has in mind as a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor.” He never mentions Trump by name, but one assumes that that is whom he is talking about. Trump admitted as much when he blurted out, “I am not a pedophile!”

The two key elements in Cole Allen’s note are:

1) He has a deep sense of guilt by association. When Trump orders illegal actions against innocent people, he does so in the name of the United States, which means that he is doing so in our name. We are consequently guilty for having allowed him to do so, just as the German public was previously held responsible for having allowed Hitler’s followers to create Nazi death camps. We are especially responsible if we do nothing to stop what we see as injustice. If we remain silent, we are all criminals.

2) Allen points out that the U.S. is supposed to be governed by the rule of law; When the government and the justice system ignore the law, which Allen clearly feels is happening now, we enter a period in which anything goes, including assassination.

An observant writer on the social media platform, Reddit, who goes by the name GC, pointed out that far from being a lunatic radical, Allen’s note is “internally consistent and logically organized.” The problem is that the logic is based on a moral premise that is not only unacceptable, but it simply doesn’t work. If Cole Allen had succeeded in killing Trump, the murder would have made Trump a martyr, and we would be more deeply mired in his goofy MAGA philosophy than we are today.

In a sense, shooting the president would be similar to Trump and Netanyahu killing Iran’s Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, who was due to retire anyway. Killing Khamenei simply worsened the situation and prolonged the agony of Iran’s civilian population.

The difference between Cole Allen and Trump is that Allen wanted to shoot someone, but failed to do so because the guardrails in place prevented him from doing any real harm. In contrast, Trump managed to remove most of those guardrails, and in his own words, would have annihilated an entire civilization if the global reality of the situation hadn’t intervened.

Hard to negotiate when no one left to compromise

The bottom line is that political problems are rarely solved by assassination. If someone had explained that to Donald Trump and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu before they targeted Iran’s top leadership, we might have a better chance of exiting Trump’s mess in Iran. It’s hard to negotiate when there is no one left with enough authority to compromise.

Writing on Reddit, GC goes on to describe the psychological wound that people feel when they believe they “are being made complicit in actions they feel are deeply wrong.” GC concludes that Cole Allen’s language is not the language of anger. “It is the language of contamination. Of someone who feels his own identity is being stained by what his government does in his name.”

The bottom line is that Cole Allen felt he could no longer stand to be a “bystander to things he considered to be crimes.”

Cole Allen uses the bottom half of his note, or “manifesto,” to thank nearly everyone that he has ever met. He sounds astonished that he managed to get as close to Washington’s elite as he did. He considers the lack of security “actually insane.” In fact, once Allen revealed his intentions, the security system worked very well.

The egregious error was to have the entire U.S. government chain of command, the President, Vice-President, Speaker of the House, and Secretary of State, in the same room at the same time.

We’ll never know if the Trump administration had decided on a designated survivor. It’s an obvious mistake that the Iranians, who by now have become used to routine assassinations either by the Trump administration or Israel, would never have made. But then the Iranians may have a healthier view of government, in that they see their leaders as managers who can be easily replaced when necessary, rather than figures who engage in the cult of personality.

As for Allen’s future prospects, which are likely to involve spending the rest of his life in jail, he seemed to know what to expect. The bottom lines of his note read: “Oh, and if anyone is curious how doing something like this feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.

“Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.”

Cole Tom Allen’s ‘Manifesto’:

Hello everybody!

So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused.

I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for “Most Wanted.”

I apologize to my colleagues and students for saying I had a personal emergency (by the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly DO need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status.)

I apologize to all of the people I traveled next to, all the workers who handled my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near.

I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.

I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies.

On to why I did any of this:

I am a citizen of the United States of America.

What my representatives do reflects on me.

And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.

(Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.)

While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.)

Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.

Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who aren’t.

Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me)

Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security

National Guard: same as Hotel Security

Hotel Employees: not targets at all

Guests: not targets at all

In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)

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 pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

Rebuttals to objections:

Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.

Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.

Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.

Objection 2: This is not a convenient time for you to do this.

Rebuttal: I need whoever thinks this way to take a couple minutes and realize that the world isn’t about them. Do you think that when I see someone raped or murdered or abused, I should walk on by because it would be “inconvenient” for people who aren’t the victim?

This was the best timing and chance of success I could come up with.

Objection 3: You didn’t get them all.

Rebuttal: Gotta start somewhere.

Objection 4: As a half-black, half-white person, you shouldn’t be the one doing this.

Rebuttal: I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack.

Objection 5: Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Rebuttal: The United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again (unless the Secret Service is astoundingly incompetent.)

Thank you to my family, both personal and church, for your love over these 31 years.

Thank you to my friends, for your companionship over many years.

Thank you to my colleagues over many jobs, for your positivity and professionalism.

Thank you to my students for your enthusiasm and love of learning.

Thank you to the many acquaintances I’ve met, in person and online, for short interactions and long-term relationships, for your perspectives and inspiration.

Thank you all for everything.

Sincerely,

Cole “coldForce” “Friendly Federal Assassin” Allen

PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone.

Like, 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.

No damn security.

Not in transport.

Not in the hotel.

Not in the event.

Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance.

I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.

The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.

Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.

Like, 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 shit.

Actually insane.

Oh and if anyone is curious how doing something like this feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.

Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.

Foreign correspondent and author William Dowell is Global Geneva's America’s editor based in Philadelphia. Over the past decades, he has covered much of the globe, including Iran, for TIME, ABC News and other news organizations.