What the Secret Service did well and not so well

Published April 27, 2026 5:01pm ET



The U.S. Secret Service did a reasonable but imperfect job in protecting President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other guests at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night.

The event at the Washington Hilton saw more than 2,500 people crowd into the hotel ballroom. Shortly after the guests had been seated and the dinner had begun, however, Cole Tomas Allen rushed through a Secret Service magnetometer checkpoint, charged up a flight of stairs, and fired two shots, lightly wounding one agent (who was wearing a bulletproof vest). He was then tackled and arrested outside of the ballroom entrance. Here’s an outline of what the Secret Service did well and not so well.

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