I Was in DC When Someone Allegedly Tried to Kill Trump
What I saw—and the story about Trump's affinity to political violence that corporate media is refusing to tell
I started writing this just past midnight last night when I got back to my hotel.
It was a long, strange, and deeply unsettling night in Washington DC. I want share with you what I saw, what I know, and what corporate media is already burying beneath the spectacle of a third alleged assassination attempt. Let’s Address This.
What Happened—And What We Don’t Know
Last night, a 31-year-old teacher from California named Cole Allen allegedly attempted to attack Donald Trump. He was stopped. No one died. Early reports circulating online indicated authorities had killed Allen. That was incorrect. Allen is alive and is currently being treated for injuries.
Here is security footage of the incident:
I was not far from where this happened, finding myself at the Renwick to attend the Substack New Media correspondents dinner. This event serves as a counter to the corporate media White House Correspondents Dinner. It is one of the events I wrote about last week as a symbol of independent media’s rising power.
The night hard hardly begun when the city began to change around us in real time. Everything shut down, and Metro Police and Secret Service informed us we could not leave. The shutdown was immediate. Not just our event—the entire city. Police sealed off entire sections. We were restricted to specific walking corridors. What had been a vibrant, energized evening became something eerie and tense within minutes.
Here my footage of Washington D.C. taken after finally leaving the Substack new media event several hours later:
Earlier in the evening—before any of this—I watched the Trump motorcade pass by on my way to the Substack event. I filmed it. At the time it was just another DC moment. In retrospect, it carries a different weight. Here is my footage of the motorcade:
What We Don’t Know—And A Disturbing Press Conference
We do not yet know Cole Allen’s motive or his history. We do not yet know the full circumstances of what happened in those moments. What I do know is speculation—especially in the first hours after an event like this—is not constructive. It is noise.
Right now, a significant portion of online commentary is dismissing the alleged attack as a hoax or a false flag. I will simply say this: We should put pressure on our state and federal authorities to provide a full and transparent investigation. Admittedly, the Trump regime has repeatedly failed to meet this seemingly basic demand, which in turn only further fuels speculation that these alleged attacks are hoaxes.
Moreover, the ensuing White House press conference leaves one with a sense of confusion. Donald Trump and his team stood before the cameras smiling ear to ear.
Just sit with this image for a moment. A man allegedly just attempted to attack the President of the United States. The city of Washington DC was in lockdown. And the response from the White House was not solemnity, not gravity, not the measured tone you would expect from leaders confronting a genuine security crisis.
It was smiles.
I do not know what to make of that. But I know it disturbed me. Because not only does this further fuel the narrative of a false flag attack, it reminds us that Donald Trump himself has inspired much of the political violence Americans are seeing today. And this is a story almost no one in corporate media is willing to discuss. In fact, CNN’s Dana Bash instead asked Congressman Jaime Raskin if “heated rhetoric” from Democrats somehow inspired this attack. Notwithstanding that Bash’s claim is complete propaganda, the evidence shows the exact opposite is true.
Trump And Political Violence
Most every elected official is currently issuing statements to the effect of “Political violence is never acceptable. We are a nation of laws and seek to advance our policies with votes at the ballot box, not with violence and bullets.” The part most are leaving out, and that corporate media is wholly ignoring is that while yes, political violence is unacceptable—Trump’s actions demonstrate that he does not believe that. And right now, corporate media is giving Trump a pass, one that endangers us all.
Let me explain.
The last decade of violent rhetoric espoused by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement has been the most significant contributor to political violence this point. And that’s not hyperbole. A 2020 study by ABC documented that as President, Donald Trump inspired at least 54 acts of political violence even before the January 6 insurrection, while the previous four Presidents combined inspired 0 such acts of political violence, and another study found that Trump’s vile and violent tweets resulted in massive spikes in hate crimes against marginalized communities.
We see the Trump’s promotion of political violence right before our eyes.
It is Donald Trump who proudly pardoned all 1600 violent January 6 insurrectionists, is funding the genocide in Palestine that has killed up to 186,000 per the Lancet, and celebrated the SCOTUS ruling expanding Presidential immunity to include killing a political opponent as an official act.
It is Donald Trump and his sycophants who incessantly mocked the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, glorified car decals of President Biden being kidnapped, bound, and gagged, and called Democrats traitors who deserve the death penalty, and whose Project 2025 founders claim that “the country is in the midst of a second American Revolution that will be bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
It is Donald Trump’s MAGA party who passed dozens of stand your ground laws to justify murdering civilians and escalating conflicts with violence, rather than deescalate them through diplomacy, who passed dozens of anti-protestor laws justifying running over peaceful protestors with vehicles, rather than allowing law enforcement to peacefully disperse protestors, who expanded access to weapons of war even after mass shootings, and even for people who absolutely should not have access to them while guns become the leading cause of death for children in America.
This is the man now surprised about the rise of political violence?
What Corporate Media Covered Last Night—And What They Didn’t
While corporate media spent the night wall-to-wall on this story—framing the most powerful politician on Earth as a victim, infantilizing a man who has spent years cultivating an atmosphere of political violence—here is what they ignored:
The Epstein Files Transparency Act—H.R. 4405—mandated the full release of the Epstein files by December 19, 2025. That deadline has passed. The files implicating Donald Trump have still not been released. Corporate media said nothing about this last night. They continue to say little.
Trump’s illegal war on Iran—launched without congressional authorization, in violation of international law—has now cost American taxpayers more than $62 billion. Fifteen American soldiers are confirmed dead. Nearly 2,000 Iranian civilians have been killed. Corporate media did not mention this last night.
Sixty percent of Americans cannot currently afford basic essentials to get by. Medical bankruptcies continue at a rate of 500,000 per year. Working families are in financial crisis. Meanwhile, billionaire tech companies like Amazon, Oracle, and Meta—to whom Trump gifted massive tax breaks—are laying off tens of thousands of workers. Corporate media did not mention this last night.
Instead, they gave us a man who has been directly tied to inspiring more acts of political violence than all living president—combined—and framed him as the victim of a dangerous, unstable country.
The irony would be almost poetic if the stakes weren’t so deadly serious.
A Closing Word
As I wrote this piece, I felt compelled to close with these two points.
One, I am not explaining away what Cole Allen allegedly did. I am demanding a thorough investigation, something the Trump regime has repeatedly denied the American people after previous alleged attempts on his life.
And two, I am not willing to pretend this alleged attack happened in a vacuum. One in which corporate media spends another news cycle framing Trump as a fragile victim while ignoring his decades of inciting political violence. All while also ignoring the $62 billion illegal war he launched, the Epstein files he has blocked, the financial devastation he has imposed on working people, and the political violence he proudly continues to inspire both with his reckless actions and his volatile policies.
The most powerful man in the world is not a victim. He must be accountable. And accountability—honest, factual, unflinching accountability—is exactly what corporate media refuses to deliver and exactly what independent media exists to provide.
That is why this work matters. That is why independent media matters. That is why your support of Let’s Address This matters. I will continue to report what I see, bring the receipts as I have in this article, and hold accountable those who believe their power places them beyond scrutiny. Last night reminded me—walking through those empty, police-lined streets—that the stakes of this moment could not be higher.
We cannot afford to look away. We will not look away.
Stay informed. Stay engaged. And join us at Let’s Address This so we can can continue to fight to protect your human rights, and our collective democracy.
Qasim Rashid is a human rights attorney, author, and host of Let’s Address This. Share, and let’s remain relentless in our mission for a more perfect Union.
The “allegedly” in your title is doing the diagnosis. When firsthand presence isn’t enough to settle what happened, the substrate has eroded.
The smiles at the press conference are the tell….whatever happened in the lobby, the people on stage processed the political utility of the moment faster than any human reaction to it. And your point on Trump as the largest single contributor to political violence is what corporate media will bury under both-sidesism this week.
Bash asking Raskin to apologize for describing reality was the prototype.
Thank you for writing this honestly while it was still unsettled.
Johan
Extremely well written article, Qasim. I must admit that my very first thought on hearing about the “shooting” was, “looks like another staged shooting.” My analysis remains the same after reading all of the first hand witness accounts. It’s incredibly sad that in less than 18 months, this regime has completely destroyed the credibility of the government of the United States of America.