By the time the Secret Service subdued Cole Tomas Allen, the would-be pistol-and-shotgun-wielding assassin who tried to breach the Washington Hilton ballroom where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was underway, the hashtags #Fake and #Staged already were propagating across social media.
Allen, 31, a teacher from California, had checked into the Hilton on April 24, meaning he was inside the hotel before security perimeters were established and manometers installed in the ballroom lobby. Allen had traveled from California to D.C. on business, and that business was to eliminate as many Trump officials as possible with a shotgun, a pistol, and an eclectic assortment of knives. His rampage ended when Secret Service tackled him, but not before he managed to shoot an agent; fortunately, the agent’s bulletproof vest saved his life.
The pandemonium was still in full swing when “STAGED” became the top trending topic on X, Bluesky, and other social media platforms. Within minutes, liberal and ex-MAGA influencers, as well as Democratic lawmakers, seemed to have the facts at their fingertips. Trump, they said, had contrived a “False Flag” to justify construction of the White House Ballroom and to boost his abysmal ratings ahead of the November midterms.
What’s more, these internet sleuths hastily unveiled their “irrefutable” evidence, accruing millions of profitable impressions and clicks. We’ll present each claim and provide our sources’ rebuttal.
I: Karoline Leavitt’s Comments
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking to Fox News, made an eerily prescient comment ahead of the event. She said, “There will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” while posing with her baby bump on the red carpet. There is an ancient and somewhat inaccurate adage that goes something like this: “The Deep State always announces what it’ll do in advance.” Trump’s detractors seized the moment, claiming that Leavitt was tacitly acknowledging that Trump had foreknowledge of Allen’s arrival and was, in fact, the Deep State’s neoteric top dog.
White House political advisor Dan Scavino rebuked that assertion. “What Karoline, an amazing woman, meant was—was President Trump would be taking pot shots at the lamestream media. Of course, the Fake News blew it up to mean something else. President Trump—God Bless the USA—is the best president we’ve had. His enemies are many, and they’re always foaming at the mouth to capitalize on any comment they can misjudge for their advantage,” he told RRN.
II: Trump’s Appearance at the Event
Until last night, Trump had shunned the gaudy gala, a celebration rife with pomposity and purveyors of disinformation. That Trump planned to appear at all raised suspicious eyebrows. After all, POTUS had a litany of legitimate grievances against fake news journalists who had for ten years spun specious lies, diminishing Trump’s innumerable achievements and assassinating his character. A White House source told RRN that Trump spent days deliberating whether to attend and resolved to go because the opportunity to verbally eviscerate his throng of accusers was too enticing to pass up. Neither the White House Briefing Room nor Air Force One’s press cabin afforded him the chance to address so many simultaneously. He would own them, own the lamestream, liberal media, and expose their biases and hatred of the Republic.
“President Trump was really looking forward to speaking that evening. The insane notion that he staged an assassination attempt is, well, an insane liberal fantasy. The same demented people who say Trump faked Butler are spinning this shit. Trump is the most successful president in American history, and that’s why haters want him dead,” our source said.
III. But it’s not only liberals talking “STAGED.”
A Secret Service source told RRN that Trump’s allies-turned-enemies began fanning the flames of flagrantly false “staged” fables. He said the Secret Service believes that ex-MAGA luminaries Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens have been using sock puppet social media accounts to amplify lies aimed at harming Trump’s reputation.
“A lot of these traitors that President Trump’s ending a war that Iran started in 1979. He’s always said Iran can’t have nukes; he’s protecting America. The president’s enemies want you to believe that 350 Secret Service personnel, 56 TSA agents, 100 Capitol Police officers, 84 National Guardsmen, and his entire Cabinet are all caught up in some grand conspiracy. That we recruited and mind-controlled Cole Tomas Alan. It’s laughable, if you look at his history,” the Secret Service source said.
IV: Cole Thomas Allen
A substitute teacher at a liberal California school, Allen was a devoted anti-Trumper. In his manifesto, he named himself a “friendly federal assassin” and wrote he had planned to, in pecking order, annihilate the administration’s hierarchy. He accused Trump of being a pedophile and said he would “fix” what’s wrong in America. His now-deleted social media accounts were loaded with anti-government screeds. He had attended “No Kings Day” protests and was a prominent member of a counter-militia group dedicated to destroying Trump. In 2023, he coded an indie video game called “Get Trump” in which players used sniper rifles to shoot Trump as he exited the White House.
“There’s no conspiracy,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told RRN. “The suspect rented a room and advantageously used that to try to storm past our magnetometer. Internet trolls who don’t know a thing about security criticize us, but the fact is, we took him down, a testament to our professionalism. He hates America and President Trump, and now he’ll pay the price.”
In closing, RRN realizes the “staged” controversy is a hotly debated topic. We have no proof one way or the other, and are simply sharing sources and insights.