President Donald Trump was evacuated from a gala dinner with news media on Saturday as an apparent shooting at the venue sent Cabinet members ducking under tables and turned the Washington Hilton into a massive crime scene.
A statement from the FBI said a subject was in custody. Trump said an officer at the scene was shot, but that the officer is "doing great" and that he spoke with the officer.
“Everyone started ducking,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who was in attendance at the event, told POLITICO.
“They did kind of a Butler, [Pennsylvania,] job on him. They shielded him and escorted him out,” Makary added, speaking of the president and referring to the 2024 shooting of the president.
The startling disruption shattered the assumption of safety usually associated with presidential events, and particularly highly public gatherings where the time and location are widely advertised. Guests entered the ballroom through magnetometers and were meant to display printed invitations in order to reach the security checkpoint.
Trump initially indicated he wanted to resume the event, but said it would soon be rescheduled.
There were a few groups of protestors outside the Washington Hilton ahead of the event, rallying against Trump’s Mideast policies and criticizing journalists for attending a gala dinner of this kind.
The event had scarcely begun when an eruption of noise near one of the ballroom entrances sent guests ducking to the floor and diving under tables. A POLITICO reporter at the dinner said they heard several loud bangs while seated at their table. They then saw Secret Service agents rush the stage to secure the president and guests were told to duck under their tables.
Secret Service agents crisscrossed the room, some with handguns drawn, seeking to locate and secure cabinet members during a long moment of uncertainty.
“Ambassador Greer! Are you okay?” one agent called, before the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, confirmed he was unharmed.
For several minutes, there was no general communication to the hundreds of people in the ballroom, leaving guests — including senior officials outside the Cabinet — uncertain as to the status of the president and the precise nature of the security threat.
Present at the dinner were not just the president and vice president, but a host of top government officials in the constitutional line of succession, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services.
At least several of those officials remained in the room well after the president’s evacuation, including Bessent, who was seated near the front of the hall and rose to exit, escorted by agents, after several minutes.
A statement from the FBI said a subject was in custody. Law enforcement is “actively assessing the situation,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
