New Delhi:
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments that “there will be some shots fired tonight” has gone viral because of the timing of what she said. She was speaking to a Fox News journalist, before a shooter attacked the venue of the White House press dinner. The attacker, who US President Donald Trump said was likely a “lone wolf”, also shot at a security officer.
“He is ready to rumble, I will tell you. This speech tonight will be classic Donald J Trump. It’ll be funny, it’ll be entertaining. There will be some shots fired tonight in the room. So everyone should tune in, it’s going to be really great,” Levitt said ahead of the event, clearly referring to a speech that would be characteristic of Trump’s loud and fiery public addresses.
To a question about who wrote the speech, she said, “I can’t take credit. In true Donald Trump fashion, the man puts his pen to the paper himself. So it’s a lot of his own work.”
🚨 JUST NOW: Karoline Leavitt calls on everyone to watch tonight because Donald Trump will bring the heat and there will be “shots fired”
LET’S FREAKING GO 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GMkccJ7qvw
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) April 25, 2026
Trump was seated on the dais at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner – the first time he is attending as president – when loud bangs disrupted the revelry and caused him and others on stage to look up in alarm.
Amid the chaos, he was quickly surrounded by US Secret Service personnel, their weapons drawn, and they quickly rushed him off the stage and through a back curtain as the crowd crouched in shock.
Later, giving details of the incident, Trump said the shooting suspect was his “would-be assassin”, but thanks to the Secret Service who stopped him. A video posted by the US president showed the suspect running past a security barricade as Secret Service agents ran toward him.
“One officer was shot but saved by the fact that he was wearing a, obviously, a very good bulletproof vest. We looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight, and I will say, you know, it’s not a particularly secure building,” he said.
Trump, describing what was going through his mind as the shots rang out, said he initially believed it was a tray being dropped, noting that the noise was “quite far away.” But the First Lady was “very cognizant” that it was a shooting, he said.
“I think she knew immediately what happened,” the president said, recalling that his wife told him, “That’s a bad noise.”