‘Pedophile, rapist, and traitor’: What Trump dinner gunman wrote in his manifesto

The US president has called Cole Allen a “sick man” who hates Christians

The armed man who breached security at a press dinner attended by US President Donald Trump detailed his motives in a manifesto, naming US officials as targets “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”

The attacker, identified as 31-year-old California teacher Cole Allen, sent a note to relatives around ten minutes before Saturday’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, according to the New York Post, which first published the text.

In the 1,052-word manifesto, signed Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen, the suspect described himself as a “half-black, half-white” American citizen and framed his actions as a matter of personal responsibility to hold the government accountable.

READ MORE: Trump rushed off stage after press dinner shooting: As it happened (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

“And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he wrote, identifying Trump administration officials – explicitly excluding FBI Director Kash Patel – as targets “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”

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Although Allen said he aimed to minimize casualties among security personnel, hotel staff, and guests by “using buckshot,” he admitted that he “would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” arguing that those attending the event were “complicit” by choice.

Referring repeatedly to his supposed Christian faith, the gunman went on to address anticipated criticism of his actions with a list of “rebuttals.”

“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration,” Allen wrote, in apparent reference to grievances including strikes on Venezuela-linked boats, the US attack on an Iranian girls’ school, immigration enforcement, and the Jeffrey Epstein case.

.@POTUS on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman: “I read a manifesto. He’s radicalized. He was a Christian—a believer—and then he became an anti-Christian … he was probably a pretty sick guy.” pic.twitter.com/AzmSukHOV8

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026

Trump described the suspect as a “sick man” who “hated Christians,” while dismissing the accusations, in an interview with CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’.

“I read the manifesto. He’s radicalized. He was a Christian, a believer, and then he became an anti-Christian… he was probably a pretty sick guy,” Trump said.

.@POTUS SLAMS @60Minutes: “You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that — because I’m not any of those things.” pic.twitter.com/QWxqoUFUaF

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026

Allen, a Torrance-based tutor and mechanical engineering graduate who also worked as a game developer, had no prior criminal record and is believed to have acted alone, according to investigators. Officials said he had legally purchased firearms, trained regularly at a shooting range, and traveled from Los Angeles to Washington by train before checking into the Hilton. His sister reportedly told investigators that he had spoken about doing something to fix the world.