President Trump and First Lady Melania were evacuated from the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday night as shots rang out. This is the first time Trump has attended the dinner as president. 

Fox News reports that Trump, who was to deliver a keynote speech, will return to the stage.

Katie Pavlich reported on the events, saying “Trump was introduced with First Lady 15 mins ish ago 

“Five or so mins after he was seated shots range out: POP POP POP POP. Sounds like five to me where I’m sitting. 

“Everyone immediately hit the floor.

“Secret Service immediately took POTUS out and a search of the room began.

“There are thousands of people here.”

Pavlich said that the shooter was dead in the lobby, though at time of writing the shooter may only have been detained.

The dinner, known as the annual “nerd prom” in Washington, DC, is attended by many journalists and reporters who were on the scene at the time shots rang out. Brett Baier said “there was this big boom then people started running.”

Police rushed to the scene as soon as the shots rang out. 

The dinner this year was contentious, with progressive journalists demanding that those in attendance express their displeasure at Trump. 

Sam Donaldson, Lynn Sherr, Linda Douglass, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Press Photographers Association, the Freedom of the Press Association, the Coalition for Women in Journalism, and the Radio Television Digital News Association told the press corps that they must “demonstrate opposition” to Trump when he appears at the dinner. They sent a letter to the board of directors to demand that those in attendance make their displeasure with the president known.

The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it,” the signatories wrote. “President Trump’s systematic, sustained, and unprecedented attacks on the free press render his presence at such an event a profound contradiction of its purpose.”

There have been two previous attempts on the President’s life. The first was July 2024 in Butler, PA, when Trump was shot by a sniper, Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was injured but stood back up on stage saying “fight, fight, fight,” with his fist raised. In September of that year, Ryan Routh lay in wait for him at his Florida golf course but was apprehended by Secret Service before he could take a shot.

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