An alleged gunman who opened fire outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner didn't just leave behind a manifesto—he apparently drafted a target list for the Trump administration and carved out one oddly specific exception.
According to numerous reports on the document, suspect Cole Tomas Allen wrote that his attack would be aimed at officials from the "highest-ranking to lowest," then added a parenthetical exemption: "(not including Mr. Patel)."
Highlights
- Cole Tomas Allen's reported 1,000-word manifesto spared only one Trump official: FBI Director Kash Patel.
- Allen allegedly sent the manifesto to family 10 minutes before the shootout outside the Washington Hilton.
- Reporting says Allen checked into the hotel a day earlier with luggage that was not searched.
- Patel was later mocked online as the manifesto's strange exemption spread across the internet.
- The manifesto's contents were reported as verified and corroborated by multiple major outlets.
The alleged gunman targeted the entire Trump administration—with one strange exception
Picture credits: Getty
That Mr. Patel would be FBI Director Kash Patel, a detail so strange it quickly became one of the most talked-about twists in the already chaotic Washington Hilton shooting. Allen, 31, allegedly checked into the hotel on Friday, April 24, 2026, a day before the dinner, and managed to get in with luggage that was never searched, according to reporting on the security failures.
The key reveal came from Allen's 1,052-word manifesto, which he reportedly sent to family just 10 minutes before exchanging gunfire with Secret Service outside the Hilton on Saturday, April 25. The document laid out his "rules of engagement" and, according to numerous reports, singled out Patel as the only Trump official to be spared.
That bizarre omission would have been eyebrow-raising on its own. But it got even more humiliating for Patel once reports circulated that he was mocked online after allegedly lingering aimlessly during the chaos, while his girlfriend hid in a separate room "holding hands with another man," according to reporting on the incident.
The manifesto's contents have since been described as verified and corroborated by multiple major outlets covering the shooting and its aftermath. On Sunday, April 26, as the document became public, the political fallout spread beyond the Hilton ballroom. President Donald Trump also reportedly erupted during a 60 Minutes interview after being confronted by Norah O'Donnell with quotes from the alleged gunman.
Online, the reaction was exactly what you'd expect when Washington hands the internet a detail this weird. One user joked: "I wouldn't be surprised if this 'manifesto' didn't just say 'I'm going to take down the whole administration (except Kash Patel because that dude is totally cool and great at his job...)'"
Another user wrote: "Keystone Kash on the case! Is this how they try to redeem him?"
Image credits: X / clownworld77
Not every reaction treated the document as straightforward, with some commenters pushing unsupported speculation about fabrication. But the reporting cited in the available coverage says the manifesto and its Patel exemption were confirmed through law enforcement leaks and widely matched by major news organizations.
All of this unfolded at an event that was already loaded with irony before a single shot was fired. The Wall Street Journal—a publication Trump had sued over its story about a birthday letter he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein—was set to receive the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability at the very dinner Trump attended.
Reports ahead of the event suggested Trump was considering a "mic-drop" exit before the awards portion, which would have let him skip the moment entirely. Instead, he was evacuated by the Secret Service.
Once the manifesto went public, the internet wasted no time
Image credits: FBI / Wikimedia Commons