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White House press dinner shooting suspect to be formally charged in court
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
The suspected gunman in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, from Torrance, California, is due to appear in court later today.
He is expected to be formally charged with using a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
“There’s a lot of federal charges that could be in play beyond those two charges but it depends on us understanding his motive, his intent, his premeditation of what led into him deciding he was going to do what he did last night,” acting US attorney general Todd Blanche told CBS News’ Face the Nation program.
The suspect’s writings – reportedly found in his hotel room – are being examined as part of the investigation into the attack. An alleged manifesto was reported earlier in which the suspect called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and created a list of targets for the shooting, formatted from highest to lowest priority, with Trump administration officials at the top.
Despite the shooting raising security concerns, Buckingham Palace released a statement yesterday evening confirming that King Charles and Queen Camilla are going ahead with their plans to visit the US on Monday.
It is understood there will be some modest adjustments to one or two royal engagements during the trip, but the overall plan remains unchanged, as my colleague Robyn Vinter notes in this story.
The king is due to visit Virginia, New York and Washington DC during the four-day trip to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence. He will meet Trump privately and will take part in a state banquet held for him and Queen Camilla.
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Melania Trump accuses ABC of refusing to 'take a stand' on comedian Jimmy Kimmel
Melania Trump this morning accused Jimmy Kimmel of “hateful and violent rhetoric” and said it was “time for ABC to take a stand” against the comedian who has long been critical of Donald Trump and his policies.
The first lady appeared to be referring to a monologue by Kimmel broadcast before the Saturday attack on the White House correspondent’s dinner, in which he referred to Melania Trump as an “expectant widow”.
Her criticism follows an episode last September where ABC suspended Kimmel after Brendan Carr, the pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened the network for jokes the comedian made about the president. The incident sparked an uproar amid allegations that Carr was attacking the constitutional right to free speech, and ABC late brought Kimmel back on air.
Here’s what Melania Trump said, in a post on X:
Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.
People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.
A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.
Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.
Here’s more about the September episode:
In the wake of the attack on the White House correspondent’s dinner this weekend, the justice department is stepping up efforts to get a conservation group’s lawsuit against Donald Trump’s new ballroom dismissed. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:
The US Department of Justice has used the weekend shooting in Washington DC to pressure a preservation group to drop a lawsuit seeking to halt the construction of Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.
Several Trump administration officials, including the president, seized on the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to advance their case for the completion of the controversial $400m project, for which the White House’s East Wing was suddenly demolished, arguing the new ballroom was needed as a “safe space”.
On Sunday night, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, posted on social media a letter to lawyers representing the Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) calling the trust’s lawsuit “frivolous”. It demanded that the organization voluntarily withdraw it or face a new dismissal motion from the Department of Justice.
“Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and staff at grave risk,” the letter, signed by Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general of the justice department’s civil division, said.
“I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter the cost.”
White House schedules press briefing for 1pm
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt just announced she will hold a briefing at 1pm ET today.
We’ll let you know what she has to say.
Suspect in press gala shooting apologized to family before arrest – report
Cole Tomas Allen sent a message apologizing to his family before his arrest for allegedly attacking the White House correspondent’s dinner, the Washington Post reports.
“I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it,” Allen wrote. The message did not name Donald Trump or outline plans to assassinate him, but was critical of his policies.
“I am a citizen of the United States of America,” Allen wrote, according to the Post. “What my representatives do reflects on me.”
That message prompted his brother to notify police in New London, Connecticut. Police and Secret Service agents in Montgomery county, Maryland, later interviewed his sister, who lives in the city of Rockville, not far from Washington DC.
White House officials plan security meeting after press gala shooting
Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, will convene a meeting this week with top security officials to discuss how to ensure the safety of Donald Trump’s future public appearances, according to the Associated Press.
Citing a senior White House official, the AP reports the meeting will bring together top Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security officials, as well as members of the White House operations team to discuss what went right at the White House correspondents dinner on Saturday, while “exploring additional options” for securing future events.
Another story to watch today is arguments before the supreme court over the potential harms of the weedkiller glyphosate, which could have major implications for consumers ability to sue products that fail to inform them of their risks. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Carey Gillam:
The US supreme court will hear arguments in a key pesticide regulation case on Monday, setting the stage for a ruling that could weaken the ability of consumers to sue companies for failing to warn of product risks.
The case centers on glyphosate – a weedkilling chemical used in the popular Roundup brand and numerous other herbicide products. The chemical has been scientifically linked to cancer in multiple studies, and was classified a probable human carcinogen by an arm of the World Health Organization in 2015.
Monsanto, the company that introduced glyphosate to the world in the 1970s and is now a part of the German conglomerate Bayer, has spent the last decade fighting more than 100,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to warn customers of cancer risks.
While maintaining that its products don’t cause cancer, Monsanto is asking the supreme court to rule that under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (Fifra), it cannot be held liable for failing to warn of a cancer risk if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not found such a risk exists and not required such a warning. The EPA’s position is that glyphosate is “unlikely” to be carcinogenic.
The ongoing congressional redistricting wars will shift to Florida this week, where Republican governor Ron DeSantis has convened the legislature to redraw maps with the intention of helping his party net perhaps three more seats in the House of Representatives. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s George Chidi:
Florida begins a special session on Tuesday in what may be the last front of the redistricting war before the 2026 election, with Republicans trying to redraw maps to pick up more seats in Congress.
Lawmakers enter the session in Tallahassee cloaked in mystery, with no preview of a proposed map to consider and no clear path for Republicans to increase their representation in what appears to be a hostile year for their party.
After Virginians voted on Tuesday to redraw their maps, the nationwide back-and-forth redistricting between states with Democratic and Republican control has left the partisan balance for congressional seats nearly even. Donald Trump’s initial call for Texas legislators to add five Republican-leaning districts was answered by California redrawing its own map, and then Virginia answered changes in Missouri and Ohio with a new map that pulled four districts into expected Democratic gains.
Lawmakers in Florida postponed earlier consideration of a mid-decade redistricting while waiting for a ruling on a US supreme court case – Louisiana v Callais – which may invalidate parts of the Voting Rights Act and offer more room for mapmakers to make changes. But that ruling has yet to be issued.
The filing deadline to run for Congress in Florida is 12 June, and party primary votes are held on 18 August.
Here’s more about the timing of King Charles’s visit today with Donald Trump at the White House.
According to Trump’s official schedule, the president will greet King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House at 4.15pm ET. Shortly after, they’ll have tea and then tour a beehive at the White House.
On Tuesday, the king is set to address a joint session of Congress, which will convene around 3pm.
Tom Ambrose
Donald Trump will hold talks on the Iran war on Monday with his top security advisors, US media reported, as negotiations between the rival parties seemed to reach an impasse.
Tehran’s top diplomat blamed Washington on Monday for the failure of talks in Pakistan this month – the first and only round of negotiations in a bid to strike a deal to end the conflict that has engulfed the Middle East and strangled the global economy.
Barak Ravid, global affairs correspondent for US media outlet Axios, reported that Trump was expected to hold a meeting with his top national security and foreign policy team on Monday to discuss the next steps.
ABC News quoted two unidentified US officials as saying that Trump would meet with his key security advisors on Iran, adding that a new deal proposed by Tehran to resolve the conflict fell short of Washington’s red lines.
Oil prices have risen after plans for a second round of US-Iran peace talks stalled despite intense regional diplomatic activity. You can follow the latest developments in our business live blog here:
White House press dinner shooting raises questions over security at event
Edward Helmore
The shooting in the White House correspondents’ gala has prompted questions over security with some asking how a shooter was able to get close to where Donald Trump and many other senior administration officials were gathered and many others praising the actions of law enforcement that swiftly stopped the attack.
As details about the shooting at the Washington Hilton continued to surface, the alleged shooter Cole Tomas Allen, 31, mocked an “insane” lack of security at the Washington dinner in a manifesto reportedly send to his family 10 minutes before his assault started.
“I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat,” the suspect said in the alleged manifesto first obtained by the New York Post, and which expressed hostility to Trump and his administration.
Allen, a Caltech-graduate, said “this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again,” he wrote.
According to the Associated Press, the Secret Service has long used the annual dinner to put some agents through their paces, in part because it was studied after the shooting of Ronald Reagan there by John Hinckley Jr on 30 March 1981.
The hotel built extensive security modifications specifically to accommodate the president, including a secured garage designed to fit the presidential limo, which leads to a dedicated elevator and staircase to a secured suite.
But hotels, while privately-owned, function as “public accommodations” meaning they remain open to other guests staying there and staying at the building ahead of time – apparently that being the method the attacker was able to access the hotel with his weapons.
In a statement posted to X yesterday, former US president Barack Obama urged Americans to “reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy”.
“It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay,” he wrote, acknowledging that the full details about the shooter’s motives have not emerged.
King Charles and Queen Camilla walk diplomatic tightrope in Washington visit
As we mentioned in the opening post, King Charles and Queen Camilla are visiting the US today on the first day of a four day trip to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and celebrate UK-US relations.
Charles, however, will have to walk a tight diplomatic tightrope as the so-called “special relationship” is under serious strain due to Trump’s belittling of the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, for refusing to get actively involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Reuters recently reported that an internal Pentagon email suggested reviewing the US position on the Falklands as punishment for the UK’s cautious stance on the war, putting even more pressure on the high-stakes visit.
We have some details on the activities Charles and Camilla are expected to partake in over the week in what will be the first British state visit to the US since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 2007.
Trump and the first lady, Melania, will greet Charles and Camilla at the White House at 4.15pm today, before having a private “tea” and going on a “beehive tour”.
The king is also due to visit Virginia and New York during the trip, and is expected to attend a state banquet held for him and Camilla.
What do we know about the suspected gunman?
My colleagues Fabiola Cineas, George Chidi and Robyn Vinter filed this report:
Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles, has no record of criminal charges or a civil court history in Los Angeles county, according to a records search.
A LinkedIn profile with the name “Cole Allen” showed a picture of a man which appeared to match the photo shared by Donald Trump.
On the social media profile, Allen said he was an engineer with a passion for game development, based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
“Mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth,” according to his profile, which noted that he had an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology. The profile also states Allen achieved a masters in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, last year.
Early reports suggest those who had known Allen in his younger years were surprised to discover he was the suspect.
A former high school volleyball teammate at Pacific Lutheran high school in Gardena, California, told NBC News his experience was that Allen was a “borderline genius” and “super stable”.
“Other people study hard,” said the former teammate, who did not want to be named. “He didn’t have to study. It would just come to him. He was really, really smart.”
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles will convene a meeting this week that will include the Secret Service and the US department of homeland security to assess protocols for major presidential events, a US official has told CBS News.
Nobody was killed in the attack, although one officer wearing a bulletproof vest who was shot was taken to hospital.
The ability of the suspect, who was reportedly armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives, to get close to Donald Trump and his aides exposed some troubling vulnerabilities in the Secret Service’s protective model, law enforcement officials have said.
It was the third time since 2024 that Trump had been under threat by an attacker in his immediate vicinity – including the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during which a bullet grazed his ear.
A Senate committee report, published in July 2025, on the attempted assassination in Butler described the events as a “cascade of preventable failures” and called for more severe disciplinary action to be taken with the Secret Service in the future.
Trump says he 'wasn't worried' during shooting
Roque Planas
Donald Trump spoke with CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell in an interview that aired Sunday night on 60 Minutes describing his ordeal at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner when shots rang out.
“I wasn’t worried,” Trump said in the interview when asked how worried he was about possible injuries after hearing the gun shots. “I understand life. We live in a crazy world.”
The interview turned frosty when O’Donnell put portions of the gunman’s manifesto to Trump, which appeared to refer to the president as a “rapist” and “pedophile”, prompting him to call O’Donnell a “disgrace” and the media “horrible people”.
Recounting his events of the shooting, Trump told 60 Minutes that his curiosity probably slowed the Secret Service’s efforts to rush him to safety.
“I wanted to see what was happening,” Trump said. “I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem, different kind of problem, a bad one – and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom.
“I was surrounded by great people,” Trump added. “And I probably made them act a little more slowly. I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’”
You can read the full story here:
White House press dinner shooting suspect to be formally charged in court
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
The suspected gunman in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, from Torrance, California, is due to appear in court later today.
He is expected to be formally charged with using a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
“There’s a lot of federal charges that could be in play beyond those two charges but it depends on us understanding his motive, his intent, his premeditation of what led into him deciding he was going to do what he did last night,” acting US attorney general Todd Blanche told CBS News’ Face the Nation program.
The suspect’s writings – reportedly found in his hotel room – are being examined as part of the investigation into the attack. An alleged manifesto was reported earlier in which the suspect called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and created a list of targets for the shooting, formatted from highest to lowest priority, with Trump administration officials at the top.
Despite the shooting raising security concerns, Buckingham Palace released a statement yesterday evening confirming that King Charles and Queen Camilla are going ahead with their plans to visit the US on Monday.
It is understood there will be some modest adjustments to one or two royal engagements during the trip, but the overall plan remains unchanged, as my colleague Robyn Vinter notes in this story.
The king is due to visit Virginia, New York and Washington DC during the four-day trip to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence. He will meet Trump privately and will take part in a state banquet held for him and Queen Camilla.
