President Donald Trump on Sunday said he believed the gunman who attacked the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner hated Christians, suggesting the violence could have been religiously motivated.
“The guy is a sick guy when you read his manifesto. He hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing. “He had a lot of hatred in his heart. … It was a religious thing.”
The suspect, widely identified as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, was a member of a Christian fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile, and was arrested after allegedly charging the Washington Hilton’s security checkpoint, shooting a Secret Service officer, and beginning to run toward the main room where Trump and other attendees were gathered.
Trump weighed in on reports that the suspect’s brother notified the New London Police Department in Connecticut regarding Allen’s plan before the incident. He said he wished he had been warned about that report, but praised law enforcement for their real-time response on Saturday.
“I think his sister, or his brother, actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was, he was a very troubled guy,” the president said. “I heard about the New London situation, and I wish they would have told us about it a little bit, but it is what it is. We had a great group of people there last night. They were strong, and the Secret Service, I thought they were outstanding. They stopped him cold.”
“I thought great, great talent was displayed last night, bravery, but talent, he came in running like he was an NFL running back. Frankly, it was very fast, and they just stopped him cold. And there was no question. He never even came close to getting by the doors or getting through the doors,” Trump said of the shooter.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen appeared to have been targeting Trump and other administration officials during an NBC News interview on Sunday. But he cautioned that investigators are still probing the situation.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche said.
Trump on Sunday again sought to use the incident as justification for building his new ballroom in the White House, saying the venue would be far more secure for such high-profile events than places such as the Hilton. The ballroom includes a military bunker as part of its national security enhancements, and has been under construction for months, but faces legal hurdles.
“It’s really what you need. I mean, you can’t have a thousand rooms. It is a very big hotel on top of the ballroom. And people come down in the elevator and they’re right next to the ballroom,” Trump said. “Military and Secret Service have wanted [the ballroom] for many years, and I’m getting it built. And, the one good thing is that now everybody knows how badly needed it is.”
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Allen appears to have been a part-time teacher from Torrance, a Los Angeles suburb, who attended Caltech, one of the most elite schools in the country. The suspect was a mechanical engineering student there and graduated in 2017 before later obtaining a master’s degree in computer science from California State University in 2025, according to his LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.
“These assassins, they seem to be high-IQ people, but they’re crazy,” Trump said Sunday.