President Donald Trump briefed the press Saturday night following a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, prompting Secret Service to evacuate the president and other dignitaries from the area.

Trump said a sole gunman rushed Secret Service agents in the lobby of the Washington Hilton, where he shot an agent before being detained. The agent was rushed to the hospital and was wearing a bulletproof vest, according to the president.

Several outlets have reported the shooting suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California.

‘I want to live because I want to make this country great.’

“This is not the first time in the past couple of years that our republic has been attacked by a would-be assassin who sought to kill,” Trump told reporters.

Trump also released a photo of the suspected gunman being detained in the lobby as well as footage of the assailant rushing past security.

RELATED: Trump evacuated from White House Correspondents’ Dinner following possible gunfire

Law enforcement confirmed that the assailant is in custody, with Trump saying he had “multiple weapons.” Trump also said the suspected gunman’s apartment in California is being searched.

Officials believe the gunman was acting alone. The motivation has not yet been determined or disclosed.

Trump, who has already survived two assassination attempts, reflected on the political violence waged against him and other politicians, saying, “I want to live because I want to make this country great.”

Trump was flanked by various members of his inner circle, including first lady Melania Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens,” Trump said. Trump also confirmed that the dinner will be rescheduled to a later date.

“We’re not going to let anybody take over our society.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Trump assassination attempt, Assassination attempt, Fbi, Doj, Todd blanche, Kash patel, Jd vance, Melania trump, White house correspondents association, White house correspondents dinner, Markwayne mullin, Secret service, Dhs, Cole tomas allen, Politics 

Chaos erupted at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after President Donald Trump was rushed offstage by the Secret Service Saturday following possible gunfire.

Live footage showed Secret Service swiftly evacuating Trump, the first lady, and Vice President JD Vance after a loud noise rang out during the dinner. According to multiple reports, Secret Service spotted a suspected gunman attempting to get through security who has since been taken offsite.

As of this writing, Trump is set to return to the dinner, and the program is expected to continue.

Moments after the president and other dignitaries were ushered out of the venue, armed Secret Service members stormed the stage and appeared to rush through the crowd. Live feeds showed attendees quickly looking around the venue, with many taking cover under the dinner tables.

Editor’s note: This story is developing and will be updated. A previous version relied on a CNN tweet, since deleted, to incorrectly say that the suspect had been shot and killed.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, White house correspondents dinner, First lady, Melania trump, Jd vance, Secret service, Assassination attempt, Trump assassination attempt, Politics 

A convicted killer was caught on video smiling and giggling in a Florida courtroom earlier this week as the judge described the murder. The judge soon asked why he was laughing — and most definitely wasn’t amused by his answer.

Marcus Terry, 43, was found guilty last December of second-degree murder for killing his cellmate in the Dade Correctional Institute in Homestead in 2021, WTVJ-TV reported.

‘I’m not sure why you’re laughing.’

Terry was back in court Tuesday, and his attorney Steven Yermish requested that Judge Ellen Sue Venzer grant his client a new trial, claiming that inadmissible evidence made it into the December trial, the station said.

Venzer denied the motion for the new trial and continued with Terry’s sentencing, WTVJ reported.

The judge described the murder — during which the victim was stabbed in the brain with a pen — and said “he shoved a pillowcase into his mouth. When the guards came in to find out what was going on, he was standing on top of this man, and his hand was bloodied,” the station said.

During the murder description, however, Terry started to smile and giggle, according to WTVJ.

“I’m not sure why you’re laughing,” Venzer told Terry, the station said.

And how did the convicted killer respond?

RELATED: Thug who grinned in arrest photo after boy was murdered just got his sentence — and it should wipe smile right off his face

“You are amusing,” he told the judge, according to WTVJ.

As you might imagine, the judge didn’t take kindly to Terry’s response.

“I found nothing amusing about your behavior or the death of this gentleman,” Venzer said, according to the station.

“God have mercy on your soul,” the judge added while issuing a life sentence without the possibility of parole, WTVJ reported.

Terry can appeal his sentence, the station added.

Terry already was serving a life sentence for armed burglary and armed robbery when he killed fellow inmate Ray Matos, WTVJ said, citing court records.

The two had been cellmates for less than a week, the station said, citing a warrant.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Courtroom, Judge, Florida, Convicted killer, Laughing in court, Smiles, Giggles, Marcus terry, Crime 

Filmmaker R.J. Moeller has a keen sense about people and pairings.

He recalls helping to connect Dennis Prager and comic Adam Carolla, two media personalities with wildly different skill sets and backgrounds. Yet Prager and Carolla clicked, and they toured the country as a very odd but endearing couple. They later co-starred in the 2019 documentary “No Safe Spaces,” which Moeller produced.

Most documentaries don’t move the cultural needle, but ‘Call Sign Courage’ gave its star a real-life happy ending.

Moeller also sensed something special about Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier, a former Air Force pilot fired by the Biden administration in 2021 for slamming the military’s DEI culture on “The Steve Gruber Show.”

Lohmeier decried the military’s diversity initiatives, citing their ties to critical race theory.

That led Moeller to produce “Call Sign Courage: The Matt Lohmeier Story.” The documentary, recently promoted by X’s own Elon Musk on the social media platform, recalls Lohmeier’s battle against a formidable system.

He lost his job at Space Force and his pension, but the military veteran wouldn’t give up. His battle is the heart of “Call Sign Courage.” That story felt like a natural for the right documentary filmmaker, Moeller recalls, including Lohmeier’s faith and family connections.

‘Jon Hamm meets John Wayne’

“I thought, ‘This dude is special.’ The character, the depth, what he did when no one else wasn’t looking,” Moeller says. It didn’t hurt that his subject “looked like Jon Hamm meets John Wayne.”

Except Lohmeier wasn’t eager for his close-up.

“These news cycles move fast. He was happy to be forgotten about … he was exploring taking a high school teaching position,” Moeller says.

A mutual friend connected them all the same, and the filmmaker convinced Lohmeier to share his story with the world via film.

“If you give me 12 months … we’re going to make you a film,” the producer told him, sealing the deal.

Crucial allies

Funding is always tight for documentary filmmakers, but Lohmeier’s story attracted the Heritage Foundation’s attention, which helped pick up some critical fees. The nonprofit helped release the film free on X for a limited time last week. Now, the film — directed by Marshall Lee, who cut his teeth editing movies like “What Is a Woman?” and “Am I Racist?” — is available on Apple TV, Prime Video, and other VOD platforms.

Musk screened the film and helped arrange for the free X window. The result? Moeller says roughly five million people watched some or all of it over the weekend.

Moeller, who also produced “Live Not By Lies” for Angel Studios, understood how his subject matter’s fight to call out the military’s Marxist turn mattered to the film. Not everyone was happy to see that element included in the documentary.

“I cannot tell you how many conservative people in D.C., when they heard about this film or saw cuts of it, said, ‘Eh, don’t talk about Marxism so much.’”

“I’m leaving it in the film … it’s the most powerful stuff,” he says. “The more they tell us to not talk about Marxism, the more we’re going to do it.”

RELATED: Killer bear flick ‘Backcountry’ puts big-budget thrillers to shame

IFC Midnight

10,000 hours

Moeller is part of an emerging right-leaning brand of storytellers, the kind who once had little access to the public. Now, with X, YouTube, and other social media platforms, he’s able to share his skills with the public.

It all started for him in the existing movie ecosystem.

“I’m proud of the 10,000 hours I put into traditional Hollywood … you need to cut your teeth out there,” he says. Now, he’s eager to leverage what he calls the “wild, wild west” of storytelling outside the industry’s glittery walls.

“Hollywood failed by overspending and making stuff people didn’t want. Don’t make the same mistakes in the conservative film world,” he says.

The existing film industry “has things to teach us, like professionalism,” he says. “We need to bring in our values, our own money, and our audiences … we need to be really good stewards of that, to under-promise and over-deliver in this space.”

Making inroads

He remains hopeful that David can, if not slay Goliath, make inroads in the pop culture landscape.

“The center-right entertainment ecosystem is doing its best, and platforms like Angel Studios are taking big swings, but how to find and monetize an audience remains the biggest struggle for independent filmmakers,” he says. “We know the audience is there, but lining up quality work with proper distribution, especially marketing, so that everyone can turn a profit and rinse-and-repeat that 1,000 times is easier said than done.”

Moeller is hard at work on a new project, a pilot for a dramedy called “Are We There Yet?” with comedian Jeff Dye. The show, following a stand-up comedian “struggling with his faith, marriage, career, and sobriety,” will be shopped to streamers and potential buyers this summer, he says.

Most documentaries don’t move the cultural needle, but “Call Sign Courage” gave its star a real-life happy ending.

“The Trump campaign found out about the fact that we were telling Matt Lohmeier’s story, and they invited him to a campaign rally in North Carolina right before the 2024 election,” he says. “At that event, Trump offered Matt a position in his administration.”

​Call sign courage: the matt lohmeier story, Space force, Movies, Interview, Entertainment, Culture, Dei, Critical race theory, Marxism, Military