# Companion Thread to Shots Fired at White House Correspondents' Dinner **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 26, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559 "2026-04-26T02:03:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/21 "2026-04-26T07:06:43Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > OTOH, there’s something fishy about a graduate from the prestigious CalTech sacrificing his life and career for a harebrained stunt like this, unless he had a few screws loose to begin with which finally fell out. Yeah, I’ve been wondering about this as well. I don’t buy the conspiracy BS but I am curious what made this guy, who has accomplished so much in his life, toss it all away trying to carry out this apparent assassination attempt. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/22 "2026-04-26T07:22:42Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It might be interesting to observe what real information emerges, and how Trumpists spin it. No doubt “the Crazy Radical Left” will be part of the spin. That, and the fact that he was highly educated. Undoubtedly, he was the product of “woke” leftist indoctrination at the universities he attended, because that’s what they do: indoctrinate students into woke, leftist ideals, contrary to what God and Trump want the United States to be. [Sarcasm off.] Seriously, I’d like to hear what this guy’s motivation was. It would be easy to say that he doesn’t like Trump, and there are any number of reasons why he wouldn’t, but was it Iran? Gas prices? Kennedy Jr.? Hegseth? Something else? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/23 "2026-04-26T07:35:51Z")
It’s now been found that the shooter donated $25 to the Kamala Harris campaign in 2024. That pretty much closes the case for the Trumpist cabal – obviously a deranged Radical Leftist, and George Soros was no doubt involved (that’s probably where the $25 – and the guns – came from!). 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/24 "2026-04-26T09:57:17Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Why should anyone believe this was real?🤨 ^ My thought. I mean, the gun and the bullets might be real enough, reports are that a Secret Service guy was shot but his bullet proof vest saved his life. That doesn’t rule out false flag/staged. Some people are evil enough to hurt others for the benefit of their evil selves. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > A lifetime of training to believe that the _only_ acceptable response to accusations of behaviors like staging assassinations is to denounce it as “just a conspiracy theory”. I guarantee that would be the response in any other Presidency. > > It’s just not working this time because Trump is such a blatant and systematic fraud and lair. I don’t often agree with @Der_Trihs but I agree here. > [@wolfpup](#): > > It seems very unlikely to me that this gang of incompetents could stage something like this, at least not without it being discovered very quickly. OTOH, there’s something fishy about a graduate from the prestigious CalTech sacrificing his life and career for a harebrained stunt like this, unless he had a few screws loose to begin with which finally fell out. While in general the maladministration reeks of incompetency there are a few who are actually functional adults. Functional adults who avoid the spotlight, stay quiet, and don’t have the best interests of the majority of people in mind. More likely to be found somewhere like the Heritage Foundation than, say, Trump’s cabinet. The suspect just ticks so many of Trumpland’s bugaboos: brown, from lib’rul California, educated… > [@Spoons](#): > > Seriously, I’d like to hear what this guy’s motivation was. I suspect the maladministration will do everything it possibly can to make sure that the suspect will never, ever be able to tell his side of the story directly to anyone other than someone who is part of that maladministraion. He will never be seen or heard in public again because I’m pretty sure that regardless of whether the facts fit or not Trumpland has already decided he’s guilty and is to be punished. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/25 "2026-04-26T12:06:37Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > When it comes to physical courage, Trump always chickens out Please be aware, this man has **bonespurs**! ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/26 "2026-04-26T12:26:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > OTOH, there’s something fishy about a graduate from the prestigious CalTech sacrificing his life and career for a harebrained stunt like this, unless he had a few screws loose to begin with which finally fell out. Eh, Ted Kaczynski was about as educated as they come, and John Wilkes Booth – who was basically rational, just devoted to an abhorrent cause – sacrificed a promising career. There’s nothing about being smart or accomplished that makes you immune to committing acts of violence; if anything, I’d guess people like that are probably _overrepresented_ among assassins, simply because they are more likely to be motivated by abstract ideas and less prone to making dumb mistakes that cause them to get caught at the early-planning stages. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/27 "2026-04-26T12:34:33Z")
The main thing that bothers me with this whole deal is this: the man is an engineer, and the best thing he could think of was a shotgun? At least build a bomb or something! Shotguns are so liberal arts. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/28 "2026-04-26T12:42:53Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > A lifetime of training to believe that the _only_ acceptable response to accusations of behaviors like staging assassinations is to denounce it as “just a conspiracy theory” The idea that past patterns of evidence should inform current analysis isn’t a wild and crazy idea. If this was staged, it’s the stupidest plot in the history of stupid plots: 1. The fake killer survived. You never let the fake killer survive, because then they can talk. 2. This dude is going to be the focus on intense investigation by hundreds of very smart people, not all of whom will be in on the conspiracy. 3. There’s no reason to assume that it’s staged. There are plenty of people who see Trump as an existential threat to America, and some large subset of those people are willing to sacrifice themselves to end the threat. People who are willing to follow through on that sacrifice are people who haven’t thought through the ramifications (primarily the martyrdom effect): they’re people who used wisdom as a dump stat. I hate that this happened, and hate that fools will continue to try stuff like this. You come at the king, you best not miss–and when you go at the person on earth who has the best protection of any person on earth, you’re gonna miss. This is the most counterproductive way possible to stop the threat of MAGA. And if we’re gonna persuade other fools to put their energies into something that might work (or at least that won’t hurt), we gotta stop calling FAKE NEWS every time one of these fools does this. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/29 "2026-04-26T12:53:53Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > - The fake killer survived. You never let the fake killer survive, because then they can talk. > - This dude is going to be the focus on intense investigation by hundreds of very smart people, not all of whom will be in on the conspiracy. > - There’s no reason to assume that it’s staged. The fact that it’s convenient for Trump and that he’s involved is a reason to think it’s staged. He doesn’t ever _not_ do fraud. And the first two points don’t really matter because Trump’s standard style is to simply declare what the “Truth” is and expect everyone to follow along, which they usually do. And even if the guy actually is guilty, don’t expect a real investigation; they’ll just make up whatever results they find convenient and use those. When dealing with systematic liars like Trump and company, it’s always best to assuming _anything_ they say is false unless proven otherwise. And then suspect that the proof was falsified. Maximum cynicism all the way, trust nothing they say. And at any rate whatever happens I doubt we’ll find out the actual facts until well after Trump is dead, if then. Nothing out of the government can be trusted right now, so “wait for the facts” doesn’t work. They aren’t coming anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/30 "2026-04-26T13:21:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The main thing that bothers me with this whole deal is this: the man is an engineer, and the best thing he could think of was a shotgun? At least build a bomb or something! Shotguns are so liberal arts. I was thinking that I would have expected better planning from a CalTech graduate though perhaps Sheldon Cooper was right and one can’t expect too much from a mechanical engineer. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/31 "2026-04-26T13:28:58Z")
Wasn’t this hotel likely booked solid months ahead of time? Didn’t Trump just recently announce he was going to attend this event he’s never attended before? How did this guy just happen to get a room at this hotel with the intent to pull off an assassination… was his decision last minute, after he heard Trump was going to be there? If so, how did he manage to snag a room? If he had enough forethought to book this months in advance, how did he know Trump was going to be there? A lot of questions around this I’m really curious about. Maybe there’s a logical answer, maybe the hotel really doesn’t book up months in advance, and he was able to reserve a room once he heard Trump and his cabinet were going to attend. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/32 "2026-04-26T14:05:45Z")
Wasn’t the claim made that assassination attempts are proof of his greatness? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/33 "2026-04-26T14:09:10Z")
I suspect the Secret Service investigates threats against _every_ president, great or not. We just don’t hear about most of this. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/34 "2026-04-26T14:10:08Z")
I meant, wasn’t the claim made by him? ---
**Author:** ![doomtastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@doomtastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doomtastic)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/35 "2026-04-26T14:11:04Z")
You’re assuming there was a lot of planning involved. It could be as simple as a crime of opportunity. He was already going to be staying there for unrelated reasons, happened to find out the President would also be there at the same time, and decided to make an attempt with what he had available at the time - which would most likely be weapons he or his family owned. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/36 "2026-04-26T14:16:39Z")
BTW, Donald Trump shared a photo of the suspect lying handcuffed and face down on the carpet. What I wonder about is why is he shirtless? Did the authorities rip his shirt off in the process of apprehending him? [![](https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/116/468/652/662/570/115/original/f7206af5bd404f9c.jpg) ](https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/116/468/652/662/570/115/original/f7206af5bd404f9c.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![doomtastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@doomtastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doomtastic)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/37 "2026-04-26T14:17:26Z")
Probably. Make sure he didn’t have explosives or another weapon concealed underneath. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/38 "2026-04-26T14:19:32Z")
It would be funny if, after all the investigations, come to find out trump was never the intended victim, and just happened to be there. It would probably hurt his feelings to not have the whole thing revolve around him. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/39 "2026-04-26T14:20:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What I wonder about is why is he shirtless? Did the authorities rip his shirt off in the process of apprehending him? This picture of him, from another angle, makes it look like he’s naked, and his lower body is being covered by a mylar blanket. This makes me suspect that they stripped him entirely to look for weapons. [![](https://media.assettype.com/gulfnews%2F2026-04-26%2Fehsypza9%2F26.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max) ](https://media.assettype.com/gulfnews%2F2026-04-26%2Fehsypza9%2F26.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/40 "2026-04-26T14:54:15Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > OTOH, there’s something fishy about a graduate from the prestigious CalTech sacrificing his life and career for a harebrained stunt like this, unless he had a few screws loose to begin with which finally fell out. Some of the weirdest people I know majored in engineering, computer science, or other STEM fields. The first moon hoaxer I ever met was a programmer. I had to take him to a nearby McDonald’s for french fries and a hamburger because, as his wife told me, that was pretty much all he would eat and that’s not what we were serving guests that evening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559.md?page=3)