Trump allies fume over Obama’s post on shooting suspect’s motives

Allies of President Trump are upset over a post by former President Obama about the motives of the suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

On Sunday, Obama posted on the social media platform X that “although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.”

“It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay,” the former president added.

In response to Obama’s post, conservative influencer Benny Johnson responded by listing off alleged pieces of evidence around the suspect targeting Trump and contrasting that with the former president saying there weren’t yet details about the motives behind the shooting.

The suspect in Saturday’s shooting has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, a teacher and game developer that law enforcement has said traveled from California to Washington, D.C., to disrupt the dinner.

In a manifesto first reported by the New York Post, Allen calls himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin.” 

Allen allegedly wrote that members of the Trump administration were “targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” with guests at the dinner and employees being “not targets at all.” He also said he would “still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) responded to the former president’s post by saying “it was politically motivated.”

“He made that pretty clear,” Lee added on X, referring to the suspect.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin on X told Obama to “not pretend to be this clueless about motive.”

“The attempted assassin put out an anti-Trump manifesto about wanting to kill Trump Admin officials, minutes before trying to storm a ballroom filled with the President, VP, Cabinet, and many others from his Admin,” he added.

The Hill has reached out to Obama’s office for comment.

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