President Donald Trump told CBS News he complicated the Secret Service's effort to rush him out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, saying he paused to assess the situation as gunfire erupted near a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The admission came in a preview for a "60 Minutes" interview set to air Sunday night. CBS correspondent Norah O'Donnell noted it took 10 seconds for an agent to reach Trump and another 20 seconds before he was taken out of the building. Trump acknowledged the delay was partly his doing.
The shooting suspect, identified by authorities as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, rushed a Secret Service checkpoint armed with multiple weapons and allegedly opened fire on a Secret Service officer. That officer was struck in his ballistic vest, taken to the hospital, and released Sunday. Fox News confirmed with law enforcement sources that Allen was targeting Trump administration officials.
In the interview preview, Trump walked through the sequence as he experienced it from inside the ballroom. He did not minimize his own role in slowing the protective detail.
"Well, what happened is it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn't making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem, different kind of a problem, bad one, and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time. And I was surrounded by great people. And I probably made them act a little bit more slow. They said, 'Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute.'"
Trump described standing up, turning in the opposite direction, and walking out, upright at first, then bending low after agents urged him to the floor.
"I was standing up and then turned around the opposite direction and started pretty much walking out pretty tall, a little bent over because I, you know, I'm not looking to be standing too tall but I was walking out, was pretty about halfway there. And they said, 'Please go down to the floor. Please go down to the floor.' So I dropped to the floor. So did the first lady."
First lady Melania Trump was evacuated alongside the president. Several other administration officials were also ushered out by Secret Service agents who flanked the group. Trump has never been one to defer easily in high-pressure moments, and Saturday night was no exception.
The scene inside the Washington Hilton descended into panic. Attendees dove under tables as gunshots rang out. Cheryl Hines, the actress married to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., described the moment in an account reported by the New York Post.
"We heard shots, everybody got under the tables, nobody knew what was going on, and then Bobby's security detail surrounded us."
Kennedy's security team rushed Hines and the secretary out of the ballroom. Trump was evacuated from the stage area at roughly the same time. The dinner, an annual fixture of Washington's political-media calendar, ended abruptly.
The Associated Press reported that Allen carried guns and knives when he stormed the lobby outside the ballroom. Police said they believe he acted alone.
Officials at a Saturday night news conference provided more detail. Just The News reported that Allen ran past magnetometers carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and several knives before opening fire on the officer at the checkpoint.
In a press conference shortly after the shooting, Trump confirmed the suspect was in custody. He complimented the Secret Service's performance and said he had asked the White House Correspondents' Association to reschedule the dinner within the next 30 days.
Trump also posted on social media afterward. "Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job," he wrote. He added: "The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we 'LET THE SHOW GO ON' but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement."
The president framed the attack in broader terms during his public remarks, casting himself as a target precisely because of his political impact. "When you're impactful, they go after you. When you're not impactful, they leave you alone," he said. He also told the crowd: "They seem to think he was a lone wolf." That instinct, to stand firm rather than retreat, has defined Trump's approach to confrontation after confrontation throughout his presidency.
Authorities have not publicly disclosed what specific charges Allen faces. The exact time shots were fired has not been confirmed. Whether anyone beyond the Secret Service officer was physically injured remains unclear from official statements so far.
The specific law enforcement agency that led the Saturday night news conference has not been named in available reporting. Nor have officials identified which administration officials beyond Trump and the first lady were evacuated from the ballroom.
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to the Secret Service for comment. What the agency says, or declines to say, about the 30-second gap between the first shot and the president's exit will matter. After the failures that marked the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service cannot afford another round of questions about response time. Even Trump's own account suggests agents had to negotiate with their protectee before he would comply.
Trump's candor about his own behavior is worth noting. He did not claim he followed every instruction instantly. He did not spin the timeline. He told the country he wanted to see what was happening, that he slowed his detail down, and that he eventually dropped to the floor only when agents insisted. It is the same instinct he displayed in Butler, standing up, fist raised, before agents could fully shield him.
Critics will say a president should comply with his protective detail without hesitation. That is a fair procedural point. But the public has watched leader after leader dodge, deflect, and rewrite inconvenient moments. Trump told the story straight, including the part that made him look difficult.
The deeper issue is not Trump's behavior inside the ballroom. It is the fact that a man armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives was able to rush a Secret Service checkpoint at an event attended by the president of the United States. That an officer absorbed a round in his vest and kept the attacker from reaching the ballroom is a credit to the men and women on the line. That the attacker got close enough to fire at all is a question someone in Washington needs to answer.
Trump has spent years navigating hostile rooms in Washington. Saturday night's was hostile in a way no one planned for. The dinner may get rescheduled. The questions about how a lone gunman nearly breached a presidential event should not wait 30 days.
When the man they're supposed to protect has to tell you he was the one slowing things down, the system worked, barely. Barely is not a standard any American should accept.
