White House Correspondents Dinner

The US Fox News channel cut off one of its own reporters just as she seemed about to give away what people are saying is foreknowledge among Donald Trump’s inner circle about the ‘assassination attempt’ at this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner.

White House Correspondents Dinner ‘shooter’

Trump had said, for the first time ever, that he would attend. An alleged shooter then tried to rush past guards before being detained.

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But many people on social media are wondering if Trump knew about it beforehand. This is because Fox correspondent Aishah Hasnie was seated with Nicholas Riccio, the husband of Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Riccio, she said, told her “You do a good job… you need to be safe tonight” then looked around the room suggestively. But Fox stopped Hasnie even finishing the sentence:

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That was far from the only weird aspect of the event. Several journalists talked about the lack of security at the event. Bags were not even being checked, and at least two correspondents said they left almost as soon as they arrived because it “felt wrong”:

Trump looked entirely unconcerned, even smirking, as the White House Correspondents Dinner ‘attack’ happened:

Chaotic footage of President Trump being evacuated pic.twitter.com/KzageVO0h0

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026

The lack of urgency among bodyguards to remove Trump was clear, with vice-president JD Vance rushed out relatively quickly – before anyone went to remove Trump:

Pro-Israel Trump figures seemed to know the identity of the alleged shooter before the name had been announced:

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A photo of Allen, face down and handcuffed, was given to Trump within moments so he could post it on his ‘Truth Social’ platform, as political commentator Tom Santos observed:

Active crime scene. Alleged shooter in the same building as the President and Vice President of the United States.

And someone gets to snap pictures like this of the shooter and then send them to Trump so he could use them on his socials moments later.

Totally legit. pic.twitter.com/gBNU2AhkRv

— Tom Santos (@tommysantos14) April 26, 2026

Trump later took the opportunity to say the attempted shooting justified his ridiculous new White House ballroom – and was amplified by dozens of MAGA accounts in a clearly coordinated campaign.

Build the White House Ballroom. pic.twitter.com/3CBVZtf4cK

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2026

Santos found it all a bit too much to swallow:

You want me to believe that:
– This is something like the 3rd or 4th Secret Service failure.
– Tump boycotts the correspondence dinner every year.
– He’s pitching an unnecessary ballroom no one asked for.
– And there happens to be a shooter incident at the event when a large…

— Tom Santos (@tommysantos14) April 26, 2026

He’s surely not the only one.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox


From Canary via This RSS Feed.

  • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Sure. If you ignore all of the evidence they listed and just say “Trump seemed unconcerned” was the only thing they said, I guess you’d have a point

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      The whole thing smells fishy but any reasonable assessment of the evidence presented here has to conclude there is no evidence.

      “Trump seemed unconcerned” - yeah he barely knows where he is. “The secret service were incompetant” - as they often are “They posted a photo within minutes” - yeah they’re ghouls making political hay. “Pro israel trump figure seemed to know the ID before media” - which trump figures are anti israeli, why mention that? Of course they spread the info amongst themselves before the media, they’re all drunk assholes with no opsec.

      It looks suss, the cheapest fascists russia could buy definitely might stage an assassination for sympathy, but there is no good evidence they did.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      They start off saying this was Trump’s first WHCD. Bullshit. Obama beat him up at one years before Trump was President. Then we get as evidence a couple of nobodies posting on Twitter. Trump posted the pic the next day after the attempt, not immediately. I checked Truth Social.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      Yeah it’s invalid to provide an example of how flimsy a case is. It is now my job to prove a negative /s

      • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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        No. Not even remotely what I said. Are you ok?

        What you would do is know the facts before spouting off a dismissal like you do. Confident ignorance is the epitome of a magat.

        What you have ignored is that: -Trump has never attended these and didn’t even have proper security after multiple attempts on his life. We know this because of reporters that left after feeling unsafe at the event (which they tweeted prior to the incident) -Press secretary said the specific words, which would align with all of the illegal betting on poly market which the administration has flat out been caught using and profiting from. -Press secretary’s husband was warning a fox news reporter that it would be dangerous at the event and Fox News cut her off mod sentence live on TV. -This admin has already been suspected of staging attempts like the photo op that killed a firefighter. Notice there are no investigations by the press or DOJ regarding these?

        But sure, everyone thinks it’s sus because “Trump had a bad feeling”

        Stfu

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          Literally not one syllable of that nears proving anything. Thus I don’t need to argue against it. We don’t prove that something didn’t happen, that’s not how logic works. We prove something did happen. It seems I’ve vastly overestimated the level of education present on this platform because none of this conjecture is any better than qanon’s. You are not “being skeptical” by buying into unproven, unimportant, perhaps even untrue “evidence”. You’re making the left look like a bunch of unhinged idiots. And it’s sad and hurts the very concept of truth itself. Even just thinking this administration could be even close to competent enough to successfully faking this empowers them. Your willingness to believe unproven things hurts everyone, not that you care.

          • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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            No. I never said anything was proven. I am using an administration’s past history of lies and manipulation (to include an assassination attempt) and betting on political actions to say that it is very likely a fake incident.

            They are not truthful about anything. No one was truly concerned. You have footage of people who never left and stayed eating during the “show”. Trump himself was not even evacuated. He went into the next room and tweeted about his ballroom.

            Morons like you look at things in a vacuum. You judge something off of it’s entire history, not just one event or statement. Your willful ignorance to this reality tv star’s regular press and market manipulation makes you the exact rube MAGA looks for

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              Yeah the moron is the guy who can’t believe how gullible people are. The real geniuses are those who look at half assed lists and conclude “this was likely staged”. /s

              Anything short of rock solid proof means saying “this likely was staged” making you look stupid. It makes us look stupid. It makes the trump administration look way more competent than they are.

              • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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                you are the people the staged assassination is meant to be fooled, you are literally falling for it. you seem to likely believe whatever comes out fox, or trumps mouth. conservatives totally believe this propaganda and attempt at deflection, almost every european see right through this.

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  you are the people the staged assassination is meant to be fooled, you are literally falling for it.

                  Of course, you’d have a really hard time actually explaining what the desired outcome would be. The fact that this changes my opinion of trump 0% doesn’t matter to you because you haven’t thought anything about this through at all.

                  you seem to likely believe whatever comes out fox, or trumps mouth.

                  Not only is this 1000% false, you haven’t thought for a moment about what it actually means. What am I believing and why? Oh just vague everything and for any reason. Trump tells me he took a shit last night I just cannot wait to believe it because: vague nefarious goal. Only problem there is that I have full certainty that if fox or trump says it, I know it’s almost always a lie.

                  conservatives totally believe this propaganda and attempt at deflection, almost every european see right through this.

                  Right so again, the fact that this could not possibly even slightly alter my view of trump in any way? Matters not at all right? The fact that at minimum you just gave these morons credit of being able to pull off staging something risky successfully? Well now let’s not think about that. And let’s not even consider questioning what would be the motive. Something something poll numbers.

                  Tell me something. Were the other 16 assassination attempts of trump also all fake? Does “everyone” in Europe also believe they are?

              • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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                Willful ignorance is STUPIDITY. You are nearly as bad as the traitors themselves, if you aren’t one of their bots

                  • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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                    Sure. Everyone here has listed evidence for what likely happened. You have no counterpoints and just dismiss it based on nothing.

                    Maybe you could watch some fox News or professional wrestling, you mental titan

          • 4am@lemmy.zip
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            So instead you cherry pick the one fact that is most easily used to make the other side look ridiculous and refuse to address any of the rest of it.

            This ain’t a court case this is us saying “this shit is suspect”

            Please address the fact that there seems to have been zero security at the event. Why is the WHCD not doing screening lines with bag checks? I got my fucking shoes checked at concerts before, you mean I can just walk into the WHCD without even showing ID? Address this.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              Sure I’ll get right on proving something didn’t happen right after you prove it did and after you also admit you called me a fascist based on jack fucking shit. I’ll be waiting with bated breath.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            Circumstantial evidence is still evidence, and when it stacks up like this, it can lead to conclusions.

            I don’t think it’s right to say either way with 100% confidence. You seem overconfident that there’s nothing there.

            You don’t need to prove a negative, but you also shouldn’t just ignore heaps of circumstantial evidence because it isn’t a literal smoking gun.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              Here is an example of sane thinking: https://lemmy.world/comment/23434434

              The user seems grounded to reality and capable of accepting being wrong in either direction.

              What’s harmful is being “sure” when none of your evidence is conclusive at all. No matter what the issue is, when it’s this fresh, you are harming society if you go around stating that you know what happened. Even if it were staged, the people who planned probably wouldn’t even “know” as many things as these users claim to know.

              It also makes me even less likely to believe it could be staged when they make lists of several items, some of which are flat out stupid like “Levitt said ‘shots will be fired’”. Jokes are famously made at this event. A commentator was bound to use this popular expression. Bringing that up hurts your case. Adding other things like “demented old man wasn’t reacting enough” does too. Trump changing his mind and attending like he did, also means nothing. He constantly does 180s on everything.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              No, if anything I’m “overconfident” that we shouldn’t draw any conclusions yet. What I’m annoyed by is that it’s even an arguable topic. I’ve seen sane takes on this like “this does look weird” which I have no issue with. “This is obviously staged” is the kind of cancerous take that’s got me riled up. The fact that I’m seeing a lot of that is deeply concerning to me.

      • shirasho@feddit.online
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        Finding one weak point and using that to ignore the rest of the completely valid points is not as good of a counter argument as you think it is.

        Unlike GOP arguments, real evidence is not some flimsy tower that falls apart when you remove a single piece. Real evidence can stand tall on its own without fake or flimsy evidence to prop it up.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          None of those things listed prove ANYTHING. Why does that not matter to you? why are you comfortable drawing a conclusion? You definitely shouldn’t be. At all.

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
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        Dishonest fascist is dishonest.

        Did someone clue the chuds in to the fediverse or something? Lots of fashposting and arguing in bad faith recently

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          I don’t think this person is arguing in bad faith. I think they do have a point that people shouldn’t talk like its a foregone conclusion.

          That said, I also think that they are wayyyy overconfident in their assessment that it didn’t happen.