Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Trump’s Humiliating Snub of Billionaire Buddy Navy Boss Revealed

The president threw his longtime friend and donor, John Phelan, under the bus at Pete Hegseth’s urging.

President Donald Trump kept his billionaire friend and neighbor John Phlelan waiting for more than an hour before breaking the news that he backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire him.

Phelan and his senior aides were shocked to learn on Wednesday that the Pentagon chief was abruptly firing him in the middle of Trump’s war with Iran.

The news came via an official post on X announcing that Phelan was being replaced by Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao, a failed MAGA Senate candidate who has pushed bizarre theories about witchcraft and cannibalism.

Hegseth later called Phelan to ask for his resignation, prompting the billionaire investor—who had no military experience before being tapped to lead the Navy—to request a meeting with Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Phelan has a home just down the street from Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the two regularly have dinner.

He also raised millions of dollars for Trump’s re-election campaign, and earlier this month, Phelan’s wife Amy Phelan hosted a bridal shower for Bettina Anderson, the 39-year-old fiancée of Trump’s oldest son, 48-year-old Donald Trump Jr.

That direct access to the president is reportedly part of what prompted Hegseth to fire Phelan following months of tension, with the defense secretary accusing his Navy secretary of not being a team player and ignoring the chain of command, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When Trump was finally ready to meet with Phelan on Wednesday evening, the Navy secretary asked the president to let him keep his job, but Trump refused, sources told the paper.

Hegseth and his deputy Stephen Feinberg had convinced Trump that Phelan wasn’t moving quickly enough to produce the president’s new, “golden fleet” of battleships, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

The president announced in December that he was instructing the Navy to begin work on a new “Trump class battleship” called the USS Defiant that would be the “best in the world.”

“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” he told reporters as Hegseth and Phelan stood behind him.

The plan was to initially build two ships, which Trump planned to personally help design because he’s a “very aesthetic person,” and then eventually scale up to 10 or more ships.

Phelan was instructed to deliver the ships by 2028, a timeline that was nearly impossible to meet given the U.S. shipbuilding industry’s struggles with workforce shortages, supply chain issues, and capacity limitations, according to The New York Times.

Trump told reporters that the Navy planned to get around labor shortages by “having robots helping us.”

The president confirmed on Thursday that Phelan’s firing was motivated by conflicts with senior Pentagon leadership over shipbuilding, as reported by Reuters.

“He’s a hard charger, and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ⁠ships,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Got to get along, especially in the military, got to get along, you know. And some people liked him, some people didn’t, and that’s usually the truth about everything.”

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Phelan said that serving as the Navy secretary was “the honor of my life.”

“Leadership at this level isn’t without its challenges,” he added. “Decision-making can be slowed by caution, competing equities, and internal friction. But our mission demands clarity, urgency, and results—and I never lost sight of that.”

Phelan is the first service secretary to be forced out of the Department of Defense this year, but Hegseth has alarmed some White House insiders by reshuffling the Pentagon’s other top leaders while the administration is at war with Iran.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon chief fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, and he has been feuding with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is a close friend of Vice President JD Vance.

Driscoll has said he’s not resigning, and for now, the White House has reportedly told Trump he can’t fire him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-humiliating-snub-of-billionaire-buddy-navy-boss-john-phelan-revealed/?

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How Trump’s Goons Cash In on His Crazy: Scaramucci

The former Trump aide claims a tight inner circle could be profiting off the president’s erratic moves.

Anthony Scaramucci has a blunt explanation for the chaos swirling around President Donald Trump: it’s not just dysfunction, it’s opportunity.

Trump’s former White House communications director argued on the latest episode of the The Daily Beast Podcast that the president’s erratic behavior is creating a lucrative opening for insiders who know how to play the system.

“People are like, OK, this is an empty vessel,” Scaramucci said.

“I can use this guy as a means to get what I want in Washington.”

That, he suggested, extends well beyond politics and into financial markets.

Scaramucci painted a picture of a president who publicly lurches from escalation to de-escalation on Iran, declaring victory one moment and stoking volatility the next.

But behind the scenes is a tight circle of confidants who may be getting a valuable preview.

“Someone’s shorting oil stocks 11 minutes before he makes an announcement,” Scaramucci said.

“Trump makes an announcement, and then they close the position.”

He pointed to Trump’s late-night phone habits—calling donors and allies—as a potential pipeline for market-moving information.

The broader takeaway: Chaos isn’t an accident of Trump’s presidency, it’s a built-in feature—and one that can be exploited.

“People are like, OK… I can implement my Project 2025. I can implement my wholesale changes to the American military… I can use this guy as a means, as a medium, to get what I want in Washington,” he said.

“So let’s keep him propped up.”

Scaramucci also dismissed the idea that Trump is executing any coherent geopolitical strategy in his standoff with Iran. Instead, he described a president operating on instinct and improvisation.

“He’s got no strategy,” he said.

“If you have no idea what you’re doing, your enemy also doesn’t know what you’re doing.”

The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Scaramucci said that unpredictability can occasionally work to Trump’s advantage, especially as Iran faces mounting financial strain. But it also comes with serious risks, particularly for American consumers.

With oil production disrupted and supply chains tightening, Scaramucci warned that energy prices could surge into politically dangerous territory.

“His base is not going to love $8-a-gallon gas,” he said.

The former Trump aide didn’t hold back on the broader implications either, accusing the president of eroding norms and governing without meaningful internal checks.

Unlike Trump’s first term, Scaramucci said, there’s no one left inside the administration willing—or able—to rein him in.

“There’s nobody controlling him… and this is a very different administration than Trump [term] one,” Scaramucci said.

That vacuum, he argued, is precisely what allows others to step in and shape policy, or profit from it.

And as Trump’s behavior grows more unpredictable with age, Scaramucci warned that dynamic is only set to intensify.

“He’s going to be like an open floodgate.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-donald-trumps-goons-cash-in-on-his-crazy-anthony-scaramucci/?

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How Trump mortgaged the GOP's future

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images President Trump is governing like a man who will never face voters again, mortgaging his party's future on promises he won't be around to keep, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: Trump's approval has plunged to a second-term low. His signature bets — tariffs, the war in Iran, redistricting — are curdling into long-term liabilities the GOP could carry long past November. Stunning stat: Fox News' latest poll shows Democrats leading Republicans by 4 percentage points on the economy — the first time the GOP has trailed on its strongest issue since 2010. 📍 Zoom in: Virginia is ground zero for two Trump gambles gone wrong. Redistricting: Tuesday's referendum cleared the way for a new map that could flip Virginia's congressional delegation from a 6-5 Democratic advantage to 10-1 — wiping out Trump's five-seat gain from the Texas gerrymander he engineered last summer, which ignited a nationwide redistricting arms race. DOGE: A year after Elon Musk took a chainsaw to the federal government, roughly 300,000 fired workers remain the cost-cutting initiative's most visible legacy. Many of them are concentrated in Virginia, where Democrats won a trifecta in November that enabled Tuesday's redistricting vote. 💣 Zoom out: The war in Iran has done deep, potentially long-lasting damage to the Republican Party. Tucker Carlson — who issued an extraordinary apology this week for his yearslong Trump advocacy — is no threat to vote blue, nor are former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alex Jones or other newfound MAGA dissidents. But the anti-war realignment they represent — the young voters, the Joe Rogan listeners, the "no forever wars" coalition that delivered Trump his 2024 win — is in tatters. As gas prices surge to more than $4 a gallon, Trump said Thursday that Americans should expect to pay more "for a little while" in exchange for a nuclear-free Iran. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found 78% of voters say gas prices are a "very big concern" for them; 77% blame Trump. Between the lines: Trump's economic standing was already collapsing before the Iran war, with voters souring on his tariff agenda amid a broader affordability crisis. White House senior deputy press secretary Kush Desai told us: "President Trump's initiative to right-size the federal government has saved taxpayers billions and successfully reduced federal employment to its lowest level since the 1960s, while the President's tariffs policies have dramatically reduced America's goods trade deficit, spurred trillions in new manufacturing investments, and secured over 20 trade deals with some of our largest trading partners."

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💸 Double-talk on tariff refunds

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Axios' Courtenay Brown guides us through what would be an unprecedented event: the U.S. government paying back $165 billion to importers: The Trump administration moved faster than anyone expected to build a system to repay businesses billions of dollars in tariffs. Now, the president is warning companies not to use it. Why it matters: Businesses face an especially tricky quandary: On the one hand, consumers and some lawmakers are calling on them to pass down refunds to their customers. On the other, there's now political pressure not to seek refunds at all. 🔨 "It's brilliant if they don't do that," President Trump told CNBC this week, referring to importers who do not seek a refund. Responding to a question about large companies second-guessing whether to go through the refund process, Trump added: "If they don't do that, they got to know me very well. ... If they don't do that, I'll remember them." 🔭 What to watch: The White House hasn't said whether it will appeal the ruling, from the nation's top trade court, that the government issue refunds. It has until early June to do so.

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🇮🇱 Trump alum's Israel reputation mission

Brad Parscale. Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is spearheading Israel's multimillion-dollar campaign to reshape how AI platforms portray the country, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes. Why it matters: AI platforms are increasingly central to shaping perceptions. Countries, corporations and other powerful interests are spending big to influence them. Parscale, a Republican digital guru who led Trump's 2020 campaign, was hired in September to devise a campaign to push back on anti-Israel online information that fueled negative sentiment about the country. ⚙️ How it works: Market Brew, an online search and AI modeling company that Parscale's firm invests in, got to work on injecting Israel-friendly content into the online bloodstream. The goal: To present the information in such a way that it'll be ingested by AI platforms. Reality check: When Axios conducted a search on ChatGPT about Israel and Hamas using language from one of the sites created by Parscale's team, none were cited in the answer.

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💭 "Make D.C. Square Again"

The L'Enfant Plan for Washington from 1792, with territory from Virginia and Maryland. Image: Maryland Center for History and Culture/366 Chad Mizelle, a former Trump DOJ official, is leading the MAGA charge to make Arlington, Va., part of Washington D.C. again, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil writes. Why it matters: After Virginia Democrats redrew the state's congressional map to a 10-1 advantage, Republicans are imagining how they could weaken Dems by removing the blue suburb. ✒️ Mizelle thinks the president should sign an executive order declaring Virginia's 1847 retrocession unconstitutional, forcing the Supreme Court to decide for the first time whether Arlington and Alexandria are rightfully the District's. Would Trump do it? The White House didn't comment. Taking it further, U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) this week introduced the Make DC Square Again Act.

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🎉 1 for the road: D.C.'s party weekend

A permanent art installation from local D.C. artist Jay Coleman at the Dupont Underground, commissioned by MS NOW. Photo: Shannon Finney for MS NOW MS NOW is making a splash at the first White House Correspondents' Dinner since the channel's rebranding: "Democracy After Hours: The Underground After Party" will be held at Dupont Underground, a 15,000-square-foot venue that was once a trolley car tunnel. NBC and MSNBC started "The After Party" decades ago. NBC News and Telemundo continue "The After Party" at the French ambassador's residence tonight. Both parties will run into the hours. 📺 Coverage of the dinner, including President Trump's speech, will air live on C-SPAN ... YouTube livestream. Featured presentations from mentalist Oz Pearlman, as well as Trump's speech, are expected to begin around 9:30 p.m. ET. 🎩 Look for ... First Amendment pocket squares from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

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Shots fired as gunman charges toward ballroom at White House correspondents’ dinner. Trump unharmed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday night, charging toward the ballroom in a chaotic encounter with Secret Service agents as guests dived under tables at the sound of shots being fired.

https://apnews.com/article/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-first-amendment-a0a2446832e8596e66c6fccb8426c8aa?

Shots fired as gunman charges toward ballroom at White House correspondents’ dinner. Trump unharmed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday night, charging toward the ballroom in a chaotic encounter with Secret Service agents as guests dived under tables at the sound of shots being fired.

https://apnews.com/article/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-first-amendment-a0a2446832e8596e66c6fccb8426c8aa?

DC gala shooting suspect aired grievances against Trump in writings to family

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner railed against Trump administration policies and referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in writings sent to family members minutes before an attack that authorities increasingly believe was politically motivated, according to a message reviewed by The Associated Press.

https://apnews.com/article/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-gunman-3cd1911ecc8a4f7d208ba5eb071fc715?

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Suspect, 31, Apprehended in White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

The president referred to him as a “whack job.”

President Donald Trump posted a photo of the suspected shooter in the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, calling him a “whack job” and a “sick person.”

The suspect has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke with the Associated Press.

Trump said the suspect was armed with multiple weapons before being stopped by the Secret Service. One officer was shot, but he was protected by a bulletproof vest.

The agent was “shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” the president said during a press conference shortly after the incident.

Trump also posted a video showing the gunman racing past a checkpoint where Secret Service agents gave chase. “He was fast,” said Trump.

Investigators “seem to think he was a lone wolf,” Trump said, adding: “A whack job.”

Interim Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said at a press conference that investigators believe the shooter was registered as a guest at the Washington Hilton, where the WHCD dinner has taken place every year for decades. It’s the same hotel where John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The situation underscores the security challenges of hosting an event involving several top government officials at a massive hotel filled with unscreened guests.

CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller noted that the crime appears to have occurred with a significant amount of “advanced planning” involving the hotel room and several weapons that he may have planned to use in succession.

The shooter was carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives, according to Carroll. While he was not struck by gunfire, he was transported to a local hospital for evaluation, Carroll noted.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at the press conference that the suspect has been charged with felony firearms and assault counts. Pirro was in the Hilton ballroom when the shooter charged through the checkpoint before he was tackled by Secret Service agents.

A Cole Allen, who looks like the man in the photo posted by Trump, reportedly won a Teacher of the Month award in Torrance two years ago.

According to election records, Allen made a single $25 contribution to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign via ActBlue, but he is also listed as a “no party preference” voter.

Everyone was evacuated from the event following the shooting, and the dinner will be rescheduled, Trump said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/suspect-31-apprehended-in-whcd-shooting/?

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Trump Uses Shooting to Make Jaw-Dropping Push for Tacky Ballroom

A security scare became fresh ammunition for Trump’s long-troubled ballroom push.

Fresh off being evacuated from the Washington Hilton after a shooting scare, President Donald Trump used a White House briefing to rally support for his long-delayed ballroom project.After initially thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement for their life-saving actions, Trump pivoted to argue that the venue wasn’t “secure” enough and pressed to fast-track his tacky $400 million White House ballroom.

“We looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight, and I will say, you know, it’s not a particularly secure building,” Trump told reporters.

“This is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room and it’s a much more secure. It’s got gunproof, it’s bulletproof glass,” he added.

“We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military have demanded it. They’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today’s a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody’s ever seen before.”

This is a breaking story that will be updated.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-uses-shooting-to-make-jaw-dropping-push-for-tacky-ballroom/?

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Trump White House Correspondents’ Dinner Erupts in Gunfire

Chaos erupted at one of Washington’s biggest nights.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were abruptly evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night after gunshots were reportedly heard inside the venue.

Attendees inside the ballroom were told to get down, with multiple guests seen crouching under tables as security locked down the room.

Trump had been seated at the dais alongside Melania and CBS reporter/White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang when the incident unfolded. A band had just played the national anthem moments before the disruption.

But confusion quickly followed, with the White House press pool reporting that Trump had not yet departed the Washington Hilton, and that he remained inside the hotel even after the evacuation.

Trump addressed the incident in a post on Truth Social.

“Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON’ but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement. They will make a decision shortly,” he wrote.

“Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again.”

He later followed up with a second post confirming he would leave the venue and address the nation.

“Law Enforcement has requested that we leave the premises, consistent with protocol, which we will do, immediately. I will be giving a press conference in 30 minutes from the White House Press Briefing Room,” he wrote.

Jiang told attendees that the dinner would be rescheduled within the next 30 days after Trump initially pushed to continue with the event before deferring to security protocol.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said he was near the men’s room at the top of the stairs when the shooting began and described being just feet away from the gunman.

“I start hearing gunshots in the hall, right near me, and the next thing I knew, a police officer threw me to the ground,” he said on air.

“I happened to have been a few feet away from him as he was shooting.”

Attorney General Jeanine Pirro said in a video posted to X that she had been evacuated from the ballroom and that the Secret Service had taken control of the hotel.

Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg told The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman that he saw someone rushing toward the stairs moments before the chaos.

Both Nunberg and Blitzer said they sheltered in the men’s bathroom, with Nunberg adding that Blitzer lost a shoe as security rushed people to safety.

The scale and source of the gunfire were not immediately clear, and it was not known whether anyone had been injured. Law enforcement on the ground said an apparent shooter had been shot at the top of the stairs leading down to the ballroom.

In a statement, the U.S. Secret Service said it is investigating a shooting near the main magnetometer screening area at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“The president and the first lady are safe along all protectees. One individual is in custody,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications.

The FBI confirmed that the suspect is in custody, adding that the National Capital Response Squad from its Washington Field Office had responded to the Hilton.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-erupts-in-gunfire/?

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Pentagon Pete Ignites Fury for Pushing Religion in the Ranks

Military members are not impressed with how Hegseth handles religion.

Since taking up the post of Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has moved to put his personal stamp on all things religious in the military. But his actions have caused concern among service members.

In early April, Hegseth forced Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army Chief of Chaplains, to retire early, and the position remains unfilled. Critics say Green was a respected leader and seasoned Army chaplain who should not have been let go.

Hegseth, a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, has consistently sought to introduce his evangelical Christian faith into military proceedings—a move that has raised concerns for some.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) told USA Today that it has received “several scores” of complaints about Green’s forced retirement, and even more raising concerns that Hegseth’s narrow evangelical focus is crowding out religious freedom.

Michael Weinstein, MRFF founder and president, has previously highlighted concerns among members worried about creeping Christian nationalism in the military.

He said one complaint he received involved an allegation that a commander told non-commissioned officers in a briefing that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

Another former Army Chaplain, Rev. Jonathan Shaw, highlighted the diversity of faith in the military and said having no chief of chaplains leaves an “enormous gap.” Hegseth reportedly has a tattoo of the Latin phrase “Deus Vult,” which translates to “God wills it”—a reference to the Crusades, which has been co-opted by some far-right groups—on his bicep.

In March, Hegseth described the Iran war as a battle against “religious fanatics,” and foreshadowed his intent to make changes to the chaplaincy in an interview with 60 Minutes.

“I mean, obviously, we’re fighting religious fanatics who seek a nuclear capability in order for some religious Armageddon. But from my perspective, I mean, obviously, I’m a man of faith who encourages our troops to lean into their faith, rely on God. There are no atheists in foxholes,” he said.

“Your mortality’s right in front of you. I remember prayer for me on combat missions, how important that was. That’s why we’re making the Chaplain Corps great again and active again, making sure we’re pouring into the faith of our troops.”

There are over 1.2 million military members, and almost a quarter of them self-reported as having no religious preference in surveys.

The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause mandates that service members have the right to observe the tenets of their preferred religion, or to observe no religion at all. And that military leaders must maintain religious neutrality in order to avoid promoting their own faith.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-hegseth-ignites-fury-for-pushing-religion-in-the-ranks/?

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Terror and relief

Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images Forty minutes into last night's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, tuxedoed Cabinet members and bejeweled journalists heard gunfire. They dove under tables at the Washington Hilton as President Trump was rushed offstage. "Get down! Get down!" people yelled. Many attendees believed someone in the massive subterranean ballroom had been shot. Axios was hosting a Cabinet member at one of our tables. Agents appeared, and the guest and their spouse vanished as if they'd levitated. Law enforcement stopped an assailant, armed with guns and knives, as he rushed a security checkpoint in the lobby and fired at a Secret Service officer during the salad course. The gunman — a guest at the historic hotel, where President Ronald Reagan was shot 45 years ago — was taken into custody and faces firearms and assault charges. Officials believe he acted alone. He was apprehended in the hotel lobby before he got to the metal detectors, a source briefed by the FBI told Axios. During a 10:35 p.m. ET appearance in the White House briefing room, Trump said those frightening minutes brought together the press and members of both political parties. "I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was a beautiful thing to see," Trump said. Trump said the officer was "shot from a very close distance with a very powerful gun" in his bullet-resistant vest "and the vest did the job." Screenshot via Truth Social The assailant was armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives, according to interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll. Carroll said the suspect was taken to a hospital for evaluation, though he wasn't shot. Vice President JD Vance was hustled out first. Agents initially covered Trump before bundling him and first lady Melania Trump from the room. The room had been buzzing with speculation about how much Trump would needle the press in his remarks. The mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was at the head table, was set to perform. The suspect is Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., AP reports. Social media posts that appear to match the suspect suggest he's a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. He earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 2017. He said he was involved in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns. Photo: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images 🥂 Trump was attending the dinner for the first time in either of his terms. "I thought it was a tray going down. It was a pretty loud noise and it was from quite far away," he said. Trump said he wanted to speak at the dinner after the threat was neutralized, but the Secret Service resisted. Guests were initially asked to reseat themselves, but then were asked to leave the premises. Behind the scenes: At first, Trump was held in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as organizers sought to resume the dinner. Waiters refolded napkins and refilled water glasses. Aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president. Then Trump returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service. The president said he wants the black-tie dinner to be rescheduled and held within 30 days. More photos.

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💡 Living history

President Trump is evacuated last night. Image from video: Bo Erickson/Reuters ⚖️ Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C., during a late-night news conference, still in her ballgown: "Shots heard, and a whole room went silent. When I lifted my head, and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there, as we all had our heads down … These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity." 📝 White House Correspondents' Association president Weijia Jiang, CBS News' senior White House correspondent, during the network's special report after President Trump spoke: "What we do isn't about a big, fancy dinner party. In some ways, what happened tonight is actually a much better reflection of what it is we do." "I was scrolling [after the head table was evacuated], just trying to find out what people were reporting. I saw many reporters reporting live from in the room, and tweeting from in the room. … [T]hey didn't know if there was an ongoing threat. And that's what reporters do. And that was on full display."

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🎨 Reflecting Pool gets a facelift

Photo: Andrew Leyden/Getty Images Crews sprayed a new "American flag blue" coating on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool yesterday. The swimming pool surface will cover up decades-old granite that President Trump said was "leaking like a sieve" and would take at least three years to replace. Photo: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images How it happened: Trump announced the renovation at an Oval Office event on Thursday. He said he tackled the project after a friend visited from Germany and lamented that the water was filthy and looked disgusting: "And I went over there with Secret Service in tow, and I said: 'Isn't that a shame? That's terrible.'" Trump said he called a few pool contractors he knows from past real estate projects — "I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road." (AP)

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Chaos at the Washington Hilton (Mark Schiefelbein / AP)

By Missy Ryan, Matt Viser, and Michael Scherer View in browser We were under the table before we knew what was happening. One moment, a military band was parading out of the Washington Hilton’s cavernous ballroom; hundreds of government officials, diplomats, and journalists, including more than a dozen of us from The Atlantic, dressed in our best or borrowed black tie, had turned to our spring-pea-and-burrata salads. The next moment, armed agents—maybe Secret Service, maybe police, maybe hotel guards; it was hard to tell from where we were huddled under a tablecloth—were pushing their way through mounds of people, climbing over chairs, rushing to the stage, where President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had shortly before been seated. Trays of plates and tableware fell to the floor with a crash. “Get down! Get down! Get under the table! ¡Abajo! ¡Abajo!” we heard security and waitstaff shout. There was at least one popping sound from the north end of the ballroom. People by the doors started to duck. Then plainclothes security rushed in. One attendee sitting in the upper level of the ballroom right by the doors said that he heard five or six hollow shots close by, and—before diving under the table—saw a Secret Service agent with his gun drawn backing down toward the ballroom. Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA spokesperson who was seated at a table near the dais, said he heard a “pop pop.” Trump sat onstage for several seconds after the shots, watching people hit the floor before he was swarmed by his heavily armed security. President Ronald Reagan was shot and injured outside the same hotel in 1981. From then on, Washingtonians have known the sprawling building as the “Hinckley Hilton,” after the shooter, John Hinckley Jr. Secret Service rushed the president and Vice President Vance, seated several spots down the dais from Trump, out of the massive room. Cabinet members, lawmakers, and senior government officials were dotted throughout the crowd of more than 2,000 people. Those who attended the dinner, in addition to Trump and Vance, included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (That made five out of the first six officials who would follow Trump in the line of succession; No. 3, Senator Chuck Grassley, doesn’t appear to have attended.) Under the tables, we were piled on top of one another, squished together between table legs and high heels. Colleagues texted loved ones and tried to understand what was happening around them. Two men in suits dragged a woman in a green sequined gown toward the door, each pulling an arm. As guests crouched down for safety, security agents hustled senior officials out of the ballroom, at least a couple of whom appeared to have been lightly injured amid the frenzy. Attendees had passed through security gates before entering the ballroom. But that screening site was deep within the hotel and was relatively cursory in its execution. Overall, the security seemed lighter than at an airport. The priority appeared to be moving guests quickly through the process and on to the dinner. When we emerged from under our tables, we and other guests asked one another what had happened. Journalists, lawmakers, and various officials all looked dazed; many panned the room with their cellphone cameras. At 8:55 p.m., about 15 minutes after the initial panic, hotel staff appeared and ordered all attendees to depart, waving their hands and shouting, “Let’s go! Go!” As the press was escorted out, Kash Patel was in a basement hallway, on his phone and surrounded by a small security detail. Erika Kirk was standing near him, visibly emotional. Soon after, the Secret Service said that a shooting had occurred near a security-screening station, in a lower lobby outside the ballroom. (Footage released later showed the suspect, who police said was a guest at the hotel, sprinting through a detector as agents scrambled to apprehend him.) The suspect was in custody, the agency said in a statement. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said that he, the first lady, and Cabinet members were “in perfect condition” and would reschedule the dinner within 30 days. Outside, in the chilly April evening, helicopters circled; ambulances with their lights flashing idled nearby. Reporters scrambled to reach the White House for a hastily scheduled presidential press conference. Some took scooters. Others hailed Ubers. Men in tuxedos and women in ballgowns arrived gasping, passed through security, and raced to where Trump stood behind a podium surrounded by the most senior members of his administration. Like him, they were in black tie. The first lady made a rare press-briefing-room appearance. Trump had initially mistaken the sounds in the ballroom for a dropped serving tray, he recounted. And after he was escorted out, he said that he “fought like hell” to continue with the program. But his security personnel convinced him that it wasn’t safe, and his staff told him that his jokes might not land in the aftermath of the shooting. Trump lavished praise on the Secret Service, saying he had spoken with one agent who was shot but survived because of a bulletproof vest. More unusual, the president also commended the roomful of reporters who covered the event. (He had been attending his first White House Correspondents’ Association dinner as president, having skipped previous years.) His plan, he said, had been to be rough with the press tonight, but he said he might not be able to be so rough at the do-over. Trump described the Hilton as “not a particularly secure building,” then pivoted to make the case that the White House ballroom that he wants to build would be safer. When asked if he believed he was the target, Trump responded, “I guess,” but said that he didn’t know if the suspect, whom he called a “sick person,” was politically motivated. He then conjectured that would-be assassins seek out high achievers. “I must tell you, the most impactful people,” he said, “are the ones they go after,” and added: “I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.” Having experienced two previous assassination attempts, he said that he considers being president the most dangerous profession, asserting that the death rate for presidents far exceeds that of bull riders or race-car drivers. The area around the Hilton, in the meantime, remained sealed off by a wide police cordon, snarling traffic for blocks in downtown Washington as hundreds of journalists filled nearby bars and sidewalks, phones in hand, to read a breaking-news story that had just happened to them. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Ashley Parker, and Vivian Salama contributed reporting. More From The Atlantic How Netanyahu hurt America’s Jews “What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s private retreat” Something is happening to America’s moral code. Trump voters like Marco Rubio more and more.

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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says The accused gunman who tried to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives left writings that called for the targeting of Trump administration officials, President Donald Trump said Sunday. The suspect attempted to charge into the ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a chaotic scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ As it happened: When shots were fired outside the White House correspondents’ dinner What we know about security measures at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Accused attacker is tutor and computer programmer from California Photos show Trump’s evacuation after the incident WATCH: Security video shows suspect running toward White House correspondents’ dinner WATCH: AP reporter gives first-hand account of security incident at correspondents’ dinner

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Future in limbo for D.C. tradition

The Washington Hilton ballroom emptied after last night's scare. Photo: Tom Brenner/AP For decades, the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been a treasured tradition, uniting the press and politicians under one roof at the storied Washington Hilton. Now, the future of that ritual is in question, Axios' Sara Fischer writes. Why it matters: Last night's intruder will force security officials and the White House Correspondents' Association to reconsider whether it's safe to host the dinner again in that venue, and how the event may need to evolve. 🎤 President Trump said last night that the dinner will be held again within 30 days. Media executives Axios spoke with are skeptical that it'll be staged exactly the same way. Hundreds of corporate executives, diplomats and even celebrities fly in for the event, many with their own security teams and protocols. The event requires months of planning for attendees, journalists and administration officials, let alone police and the Secret Service. 🔎 Zoom in: The dinner, which takes place in the basement ballroom at the Washington Hilton — the same hotel where President Reagan was shot in 1981 — seats 2,000-plus people at nearly 260 tables. Those tables are packed so closely that it can be tough to even get out to walk to the restrooms. After the attack, the Secret Service leaped on tables, across fallen chairs — even over guests — as they yanked Cabinet members from the room. Screenshot: Truth Social How it works: Various news organizations host pre-parties at the Hilton that include guests not attending the dinner. So there were likely hundreds more people in the hotel — in close proximity to dozens of officials and CEOs — who weren't even attending the dinner. 🏛️ The big picture: Since 9/11, government buildings have become much less accessible to the public. But many big public establishments, including the Washington Hilton, remain easy to enter. The bottom line: The dinner this year was supposed to represent a rare moment of bonding between the administration and the press. It became a wake-up call about security risks that could upend the tradition.

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📱 Being there

Axios' Barak Ravid files from the darkened ballroom, with reporting from Alex Isenstadt (left) and Hans Nichols, behind our guest Tony Fratto of Goldman Sachs. Photo: Mike Allen/Axios Dispatches from Axios journalists in the ballroom: Kate Marino, Axios executive editor ... As I crouched under my chair, I felt a mix of helplessness and the resignation that now it was our turn to experience the threat of mass violence that has become so familiar across America. I got an up-close view of the Secret Service in action, since a Cabinet member was seated just 2 feet from me. Several agents charged toward him, shouting for diners to move — leaping across chairs, surrounding him, whisking him away. Hans Nichols, Axios political reporter ... First instinct: self-preservation. Second: manners. Third: reporting. My colleague Barak Ravid, as usual, was first, posting on X in Hebrew. We massaged his lead (Was the president whisked or evacuated? Hastily evacuated?). Then our boss, Kate Marino, handed me a phone with one of our calmest editors, Dave Lawler, on the line. We began dictating. Get it out. We can update. Don't assume. Then we started working the room. Did you hear shots? How many? How sure are you? A friendly diner shared his video of what happened on the dais — from a vantage point we hadn't been able to see from our table. Andrew Solender, Axios congressional reporter ... As I ran around the ballroom talking to members of Congress — many of whom were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — most of them were surprised and deeply disturbed that something like this could happen at an event involving the president. "This changes everything — I mean, even our own security," Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) told me. Noah Bressner, Axios AM editor ... Cell service was spotty. People around us alternated between attempting to reach loved ones and trying to piece together the news. Eventually, a guy at our table realized there was a Hilton WiFi network meant to let guests order extra alcohol. Password: MOREWINE.

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Trump's 24-hour truce

One uncomfortable question was all it took for President Trump to resume hostilities with the Washington press — less than 24 hours after their shared brush with death, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

Why it matters: In just a few years, the president, the press and the country have metabolized an entire generation's worth of political violence. Trump, more than anyone, has stopped treating these moments as extraordinary.

• "I wasn't worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world," he told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on "60 Minutes" in his first sit-down interview since a gunman stormed the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday.

The big picture: Trump waved off the notion that he — a president who has now survived three assassination attempts in two years — could do anything to change the trajectory of political violence in the United States.

• "You go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years, it's always been there. … And I'm not sure that it's any more now than there was," Trump said.

🔎 Zoom in: Trump waxed statesmanlike in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's shooting, hailing the "tremendous amount of love and coming together" as he bantered with journalists in the White House briefing room.

• The president had come to the First Amendment dinner ready to attack. "I was all set to really rip it," he said. "I don't know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be."
• "There was spirit in that room," Trump said. "I mean, it was like the whole country was together. It was pretty amazing. It made a big impression."

The truce didn't last long. Asked by O'Donnell whether the near miss would change his relationship with the media, Trump pivoted to attacking Democrats — calling them and the press "almost one and the same."

• He erupted when she read him a passage from the alleged shooter's manifesto. "You read that crap from some sick person?" he continued, telling O'Donnell she should be "ashamed."

More on the manifesto: The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California man, referred to himself as a "Friendly Federal Assassin" in writings sent to family members minutes before the attack.

• The writings made repeated references to Trump without naming him, and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions.
• Authorities uncovered what a law enforcement official described as numerous anti-Trump social media posts linked to the suspect.

Watch the segment, "Shots Fired" ... Full interview transcript ...

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Justice Department cites dinner shooting to press preservationists to drop Trump ballroom suit “It’s time to build the ballroom,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said plainly Sunday on X, posting a letter in which Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation until 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss its lawsuit over Trump’s planned $400 million ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House. Read more.

What to know:  If the group doesn’t back down in its suit to block construction, Shumate wrote, the government would ask a court to act. Shumate called the Washington Hilton — the site of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday — “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president “because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service.” Asked about the letter, Elliot Carter, spokesperson for the preservation group, said Sunday that the group would review it with legal counsel.   The dinner is not a White House event — it is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists from media outlets that cover the president. In the century-plus since its grounds were largely closed to the public, dozens of events are evidence that even the White House complex is not impervious to intrusion. There have been a number of documented incidents in which people have scaled security barriers around the White House.   On Fox News Channel on Sunday, Trump forecast that, by the end of his current term, his project would be complete. “In the year ’28 you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, the top of the line, security,” Trump said. “You’re not going to have problems.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ What happened inside the ballroom when a gunman tried to breach Trump’s night with the press   King Charles III still visiting Trump after security review    Trump calls for unity and bipartisan healing after another violent incident. But will it last?    The night a big story came directly to Washington’s journalists — hundreds of them    Sound of gunfire carries eerie echoes of Reagan’s shooting outside the same Washington hotel    WATCH: How the shooting unfolded   WATCH: Phone video shows WH officials and guests rushing out

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The Dark Money Funding Trump’s Pet Projects

Palantir, Meta, Paramount Skydance, and more than two dozen other corporations might have broken the law when they funneled millions to the Trump administration through undisclosed donations to the revamped White House ballroom, Trump’s future presidential library, and other Trumpworld legacy projects, according to a new legal complaint. 

https://www.levernews.com/the-dark-money-funding-trumps-pet-projects/?

ps:Well, well, well, isn't that interesting, the shooting just happens to coincide with his agenda to redo the WH ballroom? And now all these people out of love for him start paying money for his ballroom?????

Man charged with attempted assassination of Trump in White House correspondents’ dinner shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump as federal authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-correspondents-dinner-shooting-suspect-d4111facf965aaaa10334eb5c12901db?

 

• 🇬🇧 King Charles III arrived in the U.S. this afternoon for a royal visit amid a growing rift between President Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Go deeper.

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Trump's many upcoming large, public events may present fresh security challenges after latest attack

Federal law enforcement officials are evaluating how to proceed with some high-profile public events featuring Trump after the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It’s the third time in less than two years that a gunman has come uncomfortably close to Trump, renewing the central tension over how to accommodate the public-facing demands of the president’s office while minimizing the risk of an attack. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Man accused in correspondents’ dinner shooting is charged with attempted assassination of Trump National Trust says it won't drop suit against Trump's $400M White House ballroom after DOJ request Virginia Supreme Court considers whether to block voter-approved US House map favoring Democrats California's fight over pipeline tests state's right to push back against Washington during war Supreme Court denies appeal of ex-Ohio House speaker's and lobbyist's convictions in $60M scheme

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Slow Dance (Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty)

View in browser Within hours after an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, President Trump declared that the incident showed the need to build a ballroom at the White House without delay. “We need the ballroom,” he told reporters in a press conference. Yesterday morning, he reiterated the argument on Truth Social, adding, “Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with [sic] its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!” Many allies leaped to agree. The commentator Meghan McCain wrote on X, “I don’t want to hear one more fucking criticism of Trump’s new ballroom at the White House.” Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a titular Democrat, cited “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to say, “After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.” And Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche fired off a letter to the attorney for the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging the construction, saying that the Justice Department would move to dismiss the case if it wasn’t dropped by 9 a.m. this morning. (It was not.) None of this makes any sense. A ballroom at the White House is not a solution to violence at an outside event hosted by the press. Moreover, if the ballroom is worth building, it is worth building the right way—and the administration shouldn’t have any trouble doing so. If anything, the safe outcome of the chaotic events Saturday show why following process and procedure is so essential in government. Trump has long been interested in a White House ballroom—the Obama adviser David Axelrod has recounted gently rebuffing Trump’s offer to build one in 2010—but last fall, he abruptly demolished the existing East Wing of the White House, having promised not to “interfere with the current building.” He then began construction of an enormous ballroom, funded with private donations. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, arguing that Trump had failed to file correct plans and environmental assessments, and that he was usurping Congress’s authority over the White House grounds and federal property. (Indeed, a New York Times analysis found architectural flaws such as staircases that don’t lead anywhere.) So far, to Trump’s dismay, the plaintiff has won some victories; a federal judge repeatedly scolded government lawyers and halted work. Earlier this month, however, an appeals court allowed construction to proceed for now. The idea that a White House ballroom would have prevented the frightening event doesn’t really add up. Saturday’s dinner was organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent group that represents reporters who cover the presidency, not by the White House—and Trump was a guest, not the host. For the annual dinner to occur at the White House itself would be a huge—okay, an even huger—embarrassment and conflict of interest. And that would be true even during a typical presidency, to say nothing of one that has systematically attacked the freedom of the press, sought to disempower the WHCA, and banished some of its members. (As another example, Trump snapped at CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell yesterday for asking entirely predictable and normal questions about the shooting, showing that Saturday’s shared danger didn’t create any lasting comity between the president and the press.) The ballroom might not be the worst idea, but if so, building it shouldn’t require cutting any corners. “We have always acknowledged the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House,” Carol Quillen, the president and CEO of the National Trust, said in a statement today. “Building it lawfully requires the approval of Congress, which the Administration could seek at any time.” If the case is good, the administration should have a relatively easy time getting the requisite approvals and persuading Congress not only to sign off on the idea but to allocate funding for it—especially with Republicans in control of both chambers. It shouldn’t require secretive demolitions and minimal transparency. And if the federal lawsuit challenging the construction is as “frivolous” as Blanche claims, then the Justice Department should have a relatively easy time defeating it in court. Everyone loves to hate red tape, but the truth is that the process required in government can be very valuable. One reason that an assassination attempt against Trump in 2024 came within millimeters of success is that the Secret Service failed to follow its own best practices. By contrast, as my colleague Shane Harris reports, the response on Saturday was far more effective because law-enforcement agencies seem to have executed well on their procedures. At the same moment that Trump was holding up the shooting as a reason to build the ballroom, online influencers were spreading conspiracy theories about the incident being “staged.” I saw social-media posts likening it to the 1933 Reichstag fire, which the Nazi government used to justify consolidation of power and which some people believe to have been an inside job; they warned that Trump would use the shooting to repress political opponents and plow through guardrails. Much simpler and more likely explanations for Saturday’s shooting are available than a false flag: Trump is a deeply despised president; political polarization and tension are very high; and acquiring guns is extremely easy in the United States. If the only abuse of executive power to emerge from the moment is the administration demanding to be allowed to start construction, that will be good news for civil liberties and for the country as a whole, but that also doesn’t mean that Trump should get his way. If a ballroom is necessary, the nation deserves one that’s carefully planned and executed rather than a hastily designed colossus with stairs to nowhere. Related: The most frightening shooters are the smart ones. Donald Trump, demolition man