Secret service agents respond during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Tom Brenner/Associated Press
Secret service agents respond during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
Security rapidly escort Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. out during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Tom Brenner/Associated Press
Officers assist guests to exit during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Tom Brenner/Associated Press
First lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump attend the annual White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton, Saturday, March 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Tom Brenner/Associated Press
Law enforcement are seen outside the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Rod Lamkey/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Secret Service officers hurried President Donald Trump out of the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday night after the sound of several loud bangs rang through the room.
The FBI confirmed a shooting had occurred and a suspect was in custody. The president was unharmed, and no injuries to guests were immediately reported. A law enforcement officer was shot but was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and is expected to be OK.
The dinner hour of the annual event had begun a few minutes before it was interrupted by the noise at around 8:30 p.m. Secret Service officers could be heard yelling, “shots fired” as they rushed with guns drawn out of the Washington Hilton ballroom, where the event was held.
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Hundreds of attendees hit the ground, crawling under chairs or tables. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were both evacuated from the room. Officials including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were also seen being ushered from the room.
Most attendees were still being held in the ballroom at around 9 p.m, when an official told the room that the program would resume that night.
Trump wrote on Truth Social at 9:15 p.m. that a shooter had been apprehended, praising law enforcement and Secret Service for “acting quickly and bravely.”
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“I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON’ but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement,” the president added. “They will make a decision shortly. Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again.”
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Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told reporters at about 9:45 p.m. that the crowd had been asked by law enforcement to leave the premises and that Trump would have a news briefing at the White House later Saturday night. He said the event would be rescheduled within 30 days, she said.
Trump’s attendance at Saturday’s annual dinner in Washington for his first time as president had been expected to put his administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.
Hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s remarks at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.
The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.
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On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the correspondents association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
Jiang, who is a CBS News reporter, said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line in to the American people. “I don’t think people realize how closely we are working with the White House,” she said on CSPAN before the dinner convened. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.”
Alexei Koseff reported from Washington and Lucy Hodgman from San Francisco. The Associated Press contributed to this report.