The attacker's manifesto has been published. He accused Trump of crimes and mocked the president's security services

Cole Allen, Donald Trump's would-be assassin, called the US president a pedophile in his manifesto and accused him of crimes – according to a text published by the New York Post and fragments published by other media. He also mocked the level of the presidential security services.

The New York tabloid published the full text of the alleged attacker's manifesto on its website. According to an official quoted by the newspaper, Allen was supposed to send it to his family 10 minutes before the planned massacre. The text was received by one of the family members and passed on to the police. Fragments of the letter are also quoted and described by other media, including CBS.

In the text, described by “NYP” as “unsustainable”, the would-be assassin describes his motivation in a general and laconic way.

“I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I will no longer allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to burden my hands with his crimes,” he wrote.

Read White House Correspondents' Dinner gunman Cole Allen's full anti-Trump manifesto https://t.co/TOIl9FNCEg pic.twitter.com/Z9nW5Pq7vl

— New York Post (@nypost) April 26, 2026

Allen identified all Trump administration officials as his targets, although he noted – without explanation – that does not include FBI director Kash Patel. He declared that he intended to shoot at security agents only when necessary and that he did not include employees and participants of the correspondents' gala among his targets, although he admitted that he might have to “go through them” to get closer to the target. He also wrote that he decided to use buckshot rather than a shotgun shell to minimize the risk of injuring bystanders behind the president. He also claimed that if he saw any other way to get closer to the president, he would use it.

Allen suggests in the letter that he is a Christian, but in a section devoted to responding to hypothetical arguments opposing his actions, he wrote that he does not believe in “turning the other cheek” in this case.

“I am not a person raped in a detention camp. I am not a fisherman executed without trial. I am not a student blown up, a child starved, or a teenager molested by the numerous criminals in this administration,” he wrote. These are references, among others: to detaining illegal immigrants, striking boats suspected of smuggling drugs and linking members of the Trump administration with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In his letter, Allen devoted a lot of space to mocking the level of security for the event at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where he had previously rented a room especially for the occasion.

“One thing I immediately noticed when entering the hotel was a sense of arrogance. I walk in with several weapons and no one takes into account that I may pose a threat,” he wrote. “Security at the event is outside, focused on protesters and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what would happen if someone checked in the day before,” he added.

He said the “level of incompetence is insane” and that he could be an Iranian agent and bring in a heavy machine gun and no one would notice. However, he admitted that he felt “terrible” deciding to commit the attack.

Ultimately, Allen was detained just after he ran through the first police checkpoint. He had a shotgun, a pistol and knives with him. During a confrontation with the Secret Service, he shot one of the officers, but hit his bulletproof vest. The officer was taken to the hospital, but was released from hospital on Sunday, according to Fox News.

Allen is an engineer and computer scientist by profession, a graduate of the prestigious Cal Tech University of Technology. Recently, he has also been creating computer games and working part-time as a teacher preparing students for college entrance exams in California. ABC broadcast footage from 2017 in which she talked to a man – still a student at the time – about the wheelchair brakes he had invented.

Previously, President Trump suggested that the attacker was motivated by hatred of Christianity.

– When you read his manifesto, you can see that he hates Christians, one thing is certain. He hates Christians, it was hatred, the president said in an interview with Fox News. When asked about the suspect's motivation, he repeated that he “had a lot of hatred in his heart” for a long time. – It was a religious matter. He was strongly anti-Christian, Trump said.

According to Fox News, Allen's brother informed the authorities about his intentions. When questioned by investigators, his sister allegedly said that Allen expressed radical views and constantly talked about a plan to do “something” to fix the problems of the modern world. Authorities also allegedly found anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on the suspect's social media accounts.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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