WH Correspondents' Dinner Shooter in Custody: Trump Not Injured

President Donald Trump was reported uninjured, and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from the annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after a law enforcement official said a shooter opened fire.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. "Out of the way, sir!" someone yelled. Others yelled to duck.

The incident erupted after the welcoming speech and during dinner, before Trump was due to speak. Trump administration officials appeared to have been evacuated first and uncertainty remained as to what exactly happened. A cabinet official, Mehmet Oz, said "shots fired upstairs" as he was rushed out by security.

The FBI said the shooter is in custody and that its Washington field office is responding to the shooting.

The city's Metropolitan Police Department posted a social message that said its officers are at the scene and coordinating with federal law enforcement.

Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be five to eight shots fired. The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities, and national leaders were awaiting Trump's speech — was immediately evacuated.

"Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job," Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after he was pulled from the room. "They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we 'LET THE SHOW GO ON.'"

He also posted that "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. The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition. We will be speaking to you in a half an hour. I have spoken with all the representatives in charge of the event, and we will be rescheduling within 30 days."

Members of the National Guard took up positions inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not re-enter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

It was not immediately clear what happened. A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter, but no further details were immediately available.

Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, said he and members of the Newsmax team, including Rob Schmitt and Greta Van Susteren, were attending the dinner alongside other top media figures, with Franklin Graham and the British ambassador seated at their table.

Ruddy said that early into the dinner, attendees heard what sounded like gunshots, prompting confusion and panic in the room.

Without direction, many people dropped to the floor or took cover under tables as a commotion broke out toward the back, Ruddy said, adding that federal security personnel quickly entered the area carrying submachine guns and automatic rifles, but at the time, it was unclear to those inside exactly what had occurred.

Ruddy added that Trump was rushed away from the podium, while other officials and guests were escorted out of the hotel.

Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated.

Trump's attendance Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was his first.

Trump arrived Saturday night to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists, and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.

Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration.

Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.

The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second.

He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.

Trump entered the subterranean banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of "Hail to the Chief" and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.

Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.

Trump's appearance is rekindling a longer-running debate about the dinner and events like it — in particular, whether it is poor form for journalists to be seen socializing with the people they cover. The New York Times, for example, stopped attending the dinner more than a decade ago for that reason.

"What was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look," wrote Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration's animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump's second term.

On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association "to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump's efforts to trample freedom of the press."

The WHCA president, CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line to the American people. "I don't think people realize how closely we are working with the White House," she said on C-SPAN before the dinner convened. "The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust."

Welcoming guests, Jiang alluded to the contentious relationship in thanking Leavitt "for everything your team does to work with us every day, whether you like it or not."

Veteran reporter Manu Raju of CNN, as he entered the Washington Hilton for the dinner, said it was not his role to express his opinion on Trump's relationship with the press. "I'm not an activist," he said. "My job is not to protest."

A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the run-up to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying "Journalism is dead."

Many reporters who attend consider it a valuable opportunity to get story ideas and establish personal connections with those in government, one that may pay dividends with returned telephone calls in the future.

Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was invited by the New York Post; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Rubio were NBC guests.

The Associated Press invited a former Trump official that it sued last year.

Taylor Budowich, a former White House deputy chief of staff who crafted communications policy, was a named defendant last year when the AP sued the administration after it reduced its access to the president because the news outlet did not follow Trump's lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

"We maintain professional relationships with people across the political spectrum because we are nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public's interest," AP spokesman Patrick Maks said.

The White House correspondents will also hand out awards for exemplary reporting. That includes some stories that displeased Trump, such as one from the Journal about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story led to a presidential lawsuit.