Why Did the Gala Shooter Get So Close to Trump at “The Hinckley Hilton”? Mark Halperin lays out the security failures at the WH Correspondents Dinner in the opening minutes of today’s livestream.
Related: HOW IS THIS REAL???
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
Don’t bring a watch to a knife fight.
‘Friendly Federal Assassin’
New information dumps on a certain Los Angeles County “Teacher of Month”, including a now-deleted account at BlueSky (where the Better People gather to escape the dangerous speech policies of X).
Cole Allen, the gunman from last night’s WH Correspondents Dinner, maintained an active online presence, especially on the leftwing social media platform Bluesky where he went by the handle http://ColdForce.bsky.social with multiple references violence and guns.
In one post he calls President Trump the Antichrist.
In another he recommends buying guns in reaction to Trump’s DOJ exploring ways to ban firearm purchases from transgenders.
In one post he calls Trump a sociopathic mob boss and in another referred to him as a traitor with known connections to Putin, repeating a favorite leftwing Russian Hoax talking point.
He also attacks JD Vance for advocating an end to America’s funding the war in Ukraine and for his criticisms of the Pope. He seems pretty fixated on Ukraine more generally.
Of course, he had a manifesto.
Shots Fired
🚨 BREAKING UPDATE: President Trump has been SAFELY EVACUATED from the White House Correspondents Dinner, per sources
You can hear shots ring out in this video
A shooter opened fire in the LOBBY — the shooter is DEAD
This is absolutely INSANE
LEFTIST VIOLENCE MUST END! pic.twitter.com/GB1eUXN8kx
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 26, 2026
More: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer says he was just feet away from the White House Correspondents dinner shooter, says he was thrown to the ground by a police officer.
They never let us down: As it’s been clearly established a shooter was in the building & eliminated outside of the White House Correspondents Dinner, count on Canadian mainstream media to report it as “unknown loud sounds” 🤡🤡🤡
Live coverage at CSpan. Trump will hold a news conference, states they’ll reschedule the event in the next 30 days.
Unconfirmed: Reported image of the shooter apprehended by Secret Service agents at the Washington Hilton
More Video: The name COLE THOMAS ALLEN from Torrance, CA is circulating on X. Unconfirmed.
Security camera footage of the attack.
“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road”
Don’t bring a bureaucratic grift op to a property developer fight;
The president said he scrapped plans to have the granite replaced, which he said was estimated to cost $301 million and would take at least three years.[…]
The president went with a plan to clean the granite and lay down a new “industrial grade pool” surface for $1.5 million, he said. All told, it would take a few weeks. Trump noted it would be ready well before July 4, when the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence.
New Governor, Same As The Old Governor
All I know about cutting trade ties with the US is how well it worked out for Cuba.
Under Mark Carney, Canada’s posture toward the United States has shifted with surprising speed—less theatrical than Trump’s, but no less consequential. In April 2025, we were promised a renewed economic and security partnership. By the summer, we were told the existing deal was already the best possible outcome. Fast forward to April 2026, and suddenly our reliance on the U.S. is framed as a strategic weakness. All of this, notably, after months without meaningful engagement or negotiation.
That messaging matters. Especially when delivered in a widely viewed address suggesting that CUSMA—the backbone of North American trade—is somehow on life support. It leaves industry asking a basic question: what exactly is the plan?
Truth or Nonsense?
James Thorne seems like a charter member of the global elite class. In this recent post, he says some interesting things about Mark Carney’s recent “speech” to Canadians. Rather than me sharing my thoughts about what he wrote, I’d appreciate you reading it and giving us/him your feedback.
Is Mark Carney Intentionally Steering Canada Towards an Iceberg?
Something very odd is happening with the Canadian government’s negotiating strategy.
The IRGC Broke the Ceasefire
Detailed analysis of what happened today.
BREAKING 💥
🇮🇳 🇮🇷 Audio of Indian tanker Sanmar Herald in communication with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz today.
⛴️ 🔺An Indian crew member is heard telling them to stop shooting during the exchange.
🤯 They reportedly fired during the incident. pic.twitter.com/vhMLIM0S5N
— FalconUpdatesHQ (@FalconUpdatesHQ) April 18, 2026
Did Viktor Orbán Just Play the EU?
In a display of political chess so brilliant it borders on the comical, Viktor Orbán sniffed out long ago that the European Union, George Soros, Obama, and the whole globalist club were gunning for him. With no worthwhile left-wing opposition left in Hungary (none of them cracked the laughable 5% electoral threshold), the Hungarian prime minister decided to solve the problem his own way: he took his top ally and right-hand man, Péter Magyar, and sent him out front as a deluxe “opponent.”
The plan was as simple as it was genius: Magyar, who until 2024 was a key piece of the Orbán government, dramatically jumped ship, played the dissident, eagerly accepted funds from the very Eurocrats who despise Orbán, and positioned himself as the great hope for “change.” The European left and their patrons fell into the trap like flies into honey. “At last!” they shouted in Brussels, as they cracked open the checkbook. No one understood a thing, of course, because hardly anyone speaks Hungarian and the headlines in Western media were too flattering to question.
Related: Newly elected Hungarian PM Péter Magyar visits the state broadcaster and shares some truth bombs.
Is Pope Leo Actually Catholic?
Or more akin to a Chicago Democrat?
So the Pope met with David Axelrod last week. David Axelrod. Obama's campaign architect. A man who is not Catholic, has never met a pope before, and whose entire career has been engineering political narratives for the American left.
And then, by pure coincidence, the Pope… pic.twitter.com/K1BPqU1I1K
— Jesús Enrique Rosas – The Body Language Guy (@Knesix) April 14, 2026
Related: Follow the Money!
Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter
The U.S. has begun enforcing a naval blockade on Iran, targeting all vessels entering and exiting its ports across the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
The move is expected to inflict about $435M in total daily losses across Iran’s exports, roughly $13B per month, even as its oil revenues rose 37% during the war to about $139M per day.
The IRGC had been operating a paid “protection corridor,” charging up to $2M per vessel in crypto, but the blockade could halt exports, disrupt imports, trigger food shortages, and accelerate the collapse of the rial.
Plus: vessels entering the Strait of Hormuz without authorization are subject to interception, diversion, and capture by the U.S. military. […] “The blockade will not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations.”
More: The thing about that Persian Gulf stranglehold is that, like the Sword of Damcles, it’s only effective until it’s played.”
I’m on the road this week and mostly out of the news cycle, so drop related links in the comments.
New Rules
I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes tonight.
🚨🚨 FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media.
Outstanding work by @FBICharlotte and the FBI Counterintelligence & Espionage Division…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 8, 2026
Civilization vs. The Forever War Party
When you threaten to wipe out a civilization in one night…
Glenn Reynolds (Update from Kate): Word is that one of the targets struck today was a collection of airplanes the mullahs had set up for fleeing the country. That may have had something to do with this.
Iran in Context
It’s amazing how many people on this platform have clearly never watched a real negotiation with a terrorist regime or any terrorist entity for that matter. This isn’t sunshine and rainbows. It’s pressure, consequences, and making it unmistakably clear that if the Iranian regime… https://t.co/FGR3OGxqLC
— Sarah Adams (@sarahadams) April 7, 2026
Related: How much prison time did Bill Clinton serve for bombing Serbia’s power plants for 78 days?
Update: Let’s hope this proves to be true.
Over The Moon
EARTHSET.
April 6, 2026.Humanity, from the other side. First photo from the far side of the Moon. Captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon. Photo: NASA pic.twitter.com/ZEBTQA85TY
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 7, 2026
North America Treaty Organization
When you give a society self-actualization on someone else’s tab long enough, they forget it was a gift. They start believing it was organically theirs.
Very much related.
No Man Left Behind
This movie is going to be insane…
American WSO ejects over Iran and spends ~48 hours hiding in the mountains while the IRGC hunts him. We cover him with 24/7 air support until US Special Ops can get to him, only for their Plan A planes to get stuck on the rural airstrip we setup deep in Iranian territory. They blow up the planes so Iran can’t recover them, fly in 3 new ones for extract, and still manage to get everyone home alive.
No man left behind. 🇺🇸
New York Post has the details.
Update: Glenn Reynolds speculates.
House Cleaning?
Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General. Would any SDA readers like to speculate as to why?
The president wrote on Truth Social that Bondi would be “transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector,” praising her for her work in his administration and offering no specific reason for why she would be leaving.