Bullets and Ballrooms

1. Ballroom Background

Donald Trump has wanted to make a lasting mark on the landscape of Washington D.C. – he wants an arch in his honor, renamed the Kennedy Center after himself, and he talked about building a ballroom on the White House’s grounds. The latter is the chief interest in this article. Trump released renderings for his “White House State Ballroom” in July of 2025, and with them he said that the construction wouldn’t interfere with the existing building. Nevertheless, the renderings showed that the ballroom would dominate the White House grounds.

East wing in 2024

Original Ballroom plans

Trump quickly started lobbying for donations from megadonors like Google and Amazon to fund his vanity project. Instead on October 20th, 2025 the East Wing was completely demolished. Seeing the president lie, ask for money, and watch a historic building be demolished without approval for a vanity project really encapsulated how many people view the Trump administration.

Luckily, in December the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop the construction of the ballroom, and construction has been stop-and-go based off of various rulings be judges and appeals of these decisions.

2. Cole Tomas Allen

Cole Tomas Allen graduated from Caltech around 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and then went and got a master’s degree in computer science from California State University. He was a part-time tutor, and was even “Teacher of the Month” for his company in December 2024. He was also an independent indie game developer, and made a game called “Bohrdom“.

While he was at CalTech he was actively involved with the CalTech Christian Fellowship, and even helped coordinate Bible study and prayer circles. He attended the United Reformed Church in Pasadena during this time. Those who knew him was a sincere Christian and thought of him positively. When he moved to Torrance, California he started attending the Grace United Reformed Church, where his father was in church leadership. Suffice it to say, Allen is clearly Christian.

Allen was quite well informed politically, and frequently commented on current events on his BlueSky account. He consistently expressed dismay at the lawlessness and immorality of the Trump administration and shock at how very little was being done to push back against it, criticized the hyper-rich and the income inequality they create, and deplored Christian Nationalism.

Cole Tomas Allen also was trained to use firearms and exercised his 2nd amendment right to own them. His sister has reported that over the last couple of months Allen became increasingly agitated with the state of the world and expressed a desire to do something about it.

3. White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Donald Trump has always been clear that he sees the press as one of his greatest enemies, and has refused to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in his first term and in 2025. However, on March 2nd, 2026 Trump announced that he had accepted the invitation for this year. This was surprising to many, and was widely publicized.

This year’s event was at the Washington Hilton Hotel, which is only about a mile and a half away from the White House. Because of its location and the amount of space it has, this hotel has hosted quite a few political events.

Cole Tomas Allen came to a point where he believed his Christian faith was now compelling him to take drastic and violent actions to mitigate the harm that that Trump administration is inflicting, so upon hearing Trump was going to be at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner he started devising a plan to assassinate Donald Trump. 5 weeks after Trump announced that he would be attending the Dinner Allen booked a room for 3 days at the Washington Hilton, and his reservation began on April 24th, 2026 – the day before the event. His plan was to travel from California with his multiple firearms and rush into the Dinner to kill as many people in the Trump administration as possible. What’s interesting is this hotel was the site of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan on March 30th, 1981.

Allen was able to travel and check into his hotel with his firearms without any problems. He noted how he wasn’t expecting security to be so lax – the security apparently focused on protestors outside the hotel, but didn’t consider that guests of the hotel could be a liability. On the day of Dinner Allen sent a manifesto (which we’ll explore a bit in detail) to some people he is close to, and then rushed through security to make his assassination attempts. He was carrying a shotgun, a semi-automatic pistol, and some knives. Security fired many shots at Allen, but all of them missed. However, Allen was quickly tackled and apprehended.

4. Conspiracy?

While presidential assassination attempts are not new, they are often surrounded with misinformation. John F. Kennedy’s assassination is likely the most well-known and there are many conspiracy theories surround it. Conspiracy theories are something that can quickly snowball into absolute absurdity – just ask Peter McIndoe if birds are real. They have become such a trope that shows like X-Files did very well. I think the conspiracy theory mentality was best summed up in this clip from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which itself has since become a meme.

I want to avoid turning into a conspiracy theory nutjob. My dad liked them too much, and he ended up being a covid denier and it ended up killing him. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think that something felt fishy about White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassination attempt.

Just prior to the event the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, teased what the evening was going to hold by saying that “There will be some shots fired tonight in the room” I don’t necessarily think that this is her implying that she had foreknowledge; I think “shots fired” is a common phrase and Trump was likely to harshly criticize his political opponents.

Another thing I’ve heard is that it took 13 seconds for JD Vance to be evacuated and it took the secret service another 10 seconds to get to the president and another 10 seconds to evacuate him. The reason for the delay was that Trump obstructed their efforts, and he said “I wanted to see what was happening. I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. … I probably made them act a little more slowly. I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’” Trump then said that he just wasn’t worried about being assassinated. Other people weren’t scared of being killed, such as UFC Boss Dana White who described the threat of being murdered as “fucking awesome”. Trump wanted to “let the show go on”, as if nothing dangerous just happened.

When we contrast this with statements of people who lived through mass shootings, its a pretty stark contrast. Even Ericka Kirk, whose husband was assassinated last year, was visibly shaken by the shooting at the Dinner and simply said she wanted to go home.

Additionally, less than 2 hours after the shooting, the president and other government officials held a press conference where they were seen smiling and laughing. It doesn’t seem like a group of people who had just experienced something traumatic. This has led some people to suggest that they knew that this was going to happen beforehand.

Pete Hegseth, Karoline Levitt, Melania Trump, and JD Vance clearly not upset

At this press conference, Donald Trump didn’t seem shaken by the experience, but definitely seized the opportunity to push for his vanity project, the White House State Ballroom. This also led people to suggest that this assassination attempt was permitted to happen. This line of thought also arises when people (including Cole Tomas Allen) point out the shocking oversight and lack of security that permitted this to happen.

Of course, this is not the first time that the government either orchestrated or allowed something to happen to further their political goals. One of the first things that my mom sent me when she heard about the assassination attempt was this video from Rich Laguna:

here is a transcript of that video. I have included citations for all the statements that he makes:

Rich Laguna’s comments

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and neither are you, which is why it is so important we look at the facts and then decide for ourselves if we are onto something, if we’re completely nuts, or if we’re just justifiably skeptical.

Because in 2009 Peter Thiel wrote that freedom and democracy were no longer compatible. Curtis Yarvin wrote that American democracy was a failed experiment, and it was J.D. Vance who in 2021 in a podcast appearance cited yarvin by name when he said that in a second Donald Trump term he should fire every mid-level bureaucrat and replace them with “our people”. Stephen Bannon has repeatedly said there is a plan for Donald Trump to serve a third term and described Donald Trump as “a vehicle of divine providence”. And Yarvin wrote the leader must use the mass movement to win the democracy game, then demand and take absolute power, and the mass movement must delegate absolute trust in the leader. Meanwhile, through his many, many actions and even more words, Stephen Miller has made it abundantly clear that the ends always justify the means. The advisor closer to the president than anyone else in the world I believe would absolutely use any means necessary to provide Donald Trump with expanded, indefinite power.

So if we believe that the people around Donald Trump would go to extreme lengths to serve him, we then ask ourselves “what would those extreme lengths be?”, and for that we don’t need to look at any evidence from the past couple of years, because history provides plenty of it. These examples are painfully predictable and follow a very simple pattern.

First in 1931 there was the Mukden incident, where Japanese soldiers planted a bomb on their own railway, detonated it, and then blamed the Chinese so they could attack the Chinese.

In 1934 Germany there was the Night of the Long Knives, where a specific German dictator fabricated evidence of a coup and used that as justification to execute hundreds of military leaders he saw as a threat.

In the Soviet Union in 1934 there was the Kirov assassination, where it’s believed that Stalin had somebody in his own team executed so they could justify the Great Purge, which was a four year campaign that ended the lives of millions of Soviet citizens and consolidated all remaining power under Stalin.

In 1939 there was the Gleiwitz incident, where a team of German soldiers dressed in Polish uniforms, fake hijacked a German radio station and then broadcast a fake pro-Polish message in order to justify the invasion of Poland.

In 1939 Soviet Union they shelled one of their own villages along the Finnish border so they could accuse Finland of breaking the non-aggression pact and launch what was called the Winter War.

In 1953 there was something called the Doctor’s Plot, where Stalin fabricated a conspiracy that a bunch of Jewish doctors wanted to assassinate Soviet leaders, which historians believe would have been used to justify sending two million Jewish people to Siberia had Stalin not died only a few months later.

And in 1979 there was the Ba’ath Party Purge in Iraq. Saddam Hussein tortured a fake confession out of a leader in order to claim there was an uprising within the party, which he then used to justify calling an emergency meeting where he called everyone in the party into one room, and one by one he named all of the people he wanted to get rid of and said that they were working against him. And then he had the remaining people in the room execute those people.

And of course in North Korea the ruling party claims several times every year they have foiled plots against the dictator.

Now this is just barely scratching the surface of the history books. The fact is that throughout human history authoritarian regimes have manufactured threats to expand state power, to preemptively justify war, to instill fear and rivals, and to create a cult of divine protection, because for these people it’s never enough to have a leader who is powerful. They have to believe that their leader is “chosen”.

Ultimately it doesn’t really matter to me what you believe or don’t believe about any specific event over the last two years. All that really matters to me is that through the lens of historical pattern recognition you understand that you were not crazy.

This struck me, because it shows how real-world conspiracies are used by governments and dictators to further their political agenda. The United States of America, and certainly the Trump administration, are not necessarily exceptions to this historical phenomenon. Its hard not to think about this possibility when this same president said that the 2017 Las Vegas massacre shouldn’t have been used to politicize for gun control, but he leaps at the change to politicize an “assassination attempt” to further his vanity project.

5. Morality

5.1. The Manifesto

Cole Tomas Allen sent a manifesto to a few family members just a bit before his assassination attempt. This manifesto has been released in full by the New York Post. However, because of the sheer number of ads on the article, I want to recount the whole manifesto here:

Hello everybody!

So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused.

I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for “Most Wanted.”

I apologize to my colleagues and students for saying I had a personal emergency (by the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly DO need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status.)

I apologize to all of the people I traveled next to, all the workers who handled my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near.

I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.

I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies.

On to why I did any of this:

I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. (Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.)

While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.)

Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest

Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who aren’t

Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me)

Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security

National Guard: same as Hotel Security

Hotel Employees: not targets at all

Guests: not targets at all

In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)

I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people chose to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

Rebuttals to objections:

Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.

Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.

Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.

Objection 2: This is not a convenient time for you to do this.

Rebuttal: I need whoever thinks this way to take a couple minutes and realize that the world isn’t about them. Do you think that when I see someone raped or murdered or abused, I should walk on by because it would be “inconvenient” for people who aren’t the victim?

This was the best timing and chance of success I could come up with.

Objection 3: You didn’t get them all.

Rebuttal: Gotta start somewhere.

Objection 4: As a half-black, half-white person, you shouldn’t be the one doing this.

Rebuttal: I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack

Objection 5: Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Rebuttal: The United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again (unless the Secret Service is astoundingly incompetent.)

Thank you to my family, both personal and church, for your love over these 31 years.

Thank you to my friends, for your companionship over many years.

Thank you to my colleagues over many jobs, for your positivity and professionalism.

Thank you to my students for your enthusiasm and love of learning.

Thank you to the many acquaintances I’ve met, in person and online, for short interactions and long-term relationships, for your perspectives and inspiration.

Thank you all for everything.

Sincerely,
Cole “coldForce” “Friendly Federal Assassin” Allen

PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone.

Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.

What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing.

No damn security.

Not in transport.

Not in the hotel.

Not in the event.

Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance.

I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.

The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.

Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.

Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed shit.

Actually insane.

Oh and if anyone is curious is how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.

Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids”

5.2. The Founding of America

The American colonies believed they were oppressed by the British government, and for years they tried to work through official channels to end this oppression. Eventually, the leaders within the colonies decided that reformation wasn’t possible and that revolution was necessary. The newborn country would then go on to wage war against Britain. The Declaration of Independence – the founding document of the United States of America – ended up saying that it was their right and duty to engage in these acts of violence. It said:

“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government…”

Growing up I was always taught that the 2nd amendment of the US constitution was to facilitate doing what the Declaration says is our right and duty. This is a sentiment that is put forward by the National Rifle Association.

In light of this, based of off a reading of these documents – and many others, such as the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms” and Thomas Jefferson’s letter to John Adams – I believe that Cole Tomas Allen was following the example of America’s Founding Fathers and accepting the charge that they gave to all Americans to overthrow tyrannical governments.

5.3. Christian Nationalism

Pete Hegseth, who led the charge on rebranding the “Department of Defense” to “Department of War” is a member of “Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches“. This is a group of churches whose leaders are openly Christian Nationalists who want to abolish womens’ right to vote. Hegseth himself has some pretty intense Christian Nationalistic ideals as well. In his 2020 book “American Crusade”, he calls for Christians to see themselves as modern-day crusaders and to arm themselves and prepare for war. He has multiple tattoos that draw from the violent history of the crusades, namely the Jerusalem Cross and the phrase “Deus Vult” or “God wills it” which Hegseth has called “the rallying cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem.”

Tom Hill, president and executive director of the Center for Peace Diplomacy, has said that when used in combination, the Jerusalem cross and “Deus Vult” are “an invocation of the claim that crusader violence and its atrocities (including the massacre of civilians) was legitimate… It is this bloody, militant intent that comes first when seeking to understand its current usage as a symbol for those pledging their allegiances in contemporary politics — and this is why it has been appropriated by the so-called ‘alt right'”

Hegseth’s theology has very clearly affected the nation’s recent actions, and Hegseth even started hosting Pentagon-sponsored worship services which features Hegseth’s preferred theology (separation of church and state be damned). As the Secretary of War, Hegseth has spoken many times about how he believes that God condones violence, if its violence HE likes. For example, on March 25th, 2026 Hegseth rehearsed this prayer at the Pentagon’s service:

“Almighty God, who trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle, you who stirred the nations from the north against Babylon of old, making her land a desolation where none dwell, behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous. Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans, and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish. Let their bulls go down to slaughter for their day has come, the time of their punishment. Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind.

Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield, protect the innocent and blameless in their midst. Make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty-handed. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. Preserve their lives, sharpen their resolve, and let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them. For the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, King over all kings and amen.”

This prayer is so shockingly violent that it has been compared to Mark Twain’s satirical work “The War Prayer“.

Now, if the Secretary of War can invoke Christianity for violence and war which has killed hundreds of people and continue to serve in a position of power, then I think it is hypocritical to then criticize Cole Tomas Allen for doing the same thing. As a reminder, Allen is a church-going Christian, and even cited the teachings of Jesus in his manifesto. He explained:

“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.

Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”

5.4. My View

I have been a pacifist since 2022 and I reaffirmed my stance as a pacifist last year as well. After Pete Hegseth’s War Prayer, the Pope – the leader of the church which led the Crusades – felt the need to chime in on this rhetoric a few days later. I was blown away by what he said, so I would like to recount it in full here:

“Let us look to Jesus, who presents Himself as King of peace, while war is being prepared around Him. He, who remains steadfast in meekness, while others stir in violence. He, who offers Himself as a caress for humanity, while others wield swords and clubs.

As the King of peace, he did not arm himself, he did not defend himself, he fought no war. He manifested the meek face of God, who always rejects violence, and instead of saving himself he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, to embrace all the crosses planted in every time and place in the history of humanity.

This is our God: Jesus, King of peace. A God who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war, who does not listen to the prayer of those who make war and rejects it saying: ‘Even if you multiplied your prayers, I would not listen: your hands drip with blood’ (Is 1,15).

In his wounds we see the injuries of so many women and men of today. In his final cry addressed to the Father we hear the weeping of those who are crushed and the groan of pain from all those oppressed by violence and all the victims of war.

Christ, King of peace, still cries out from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your arms, remember that you are brothers!”

I firmly agree with the Pope on this matter. I believe that Jesus condemned violence in his ministry. For example, when the Romans came to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off one of their ears. Jesus chastised Peter for his act of violence, and then healed the Roman that was arresting Jesus so he could be tortured and ultimately executed. This is something I think a lot about, deeply value, and try to emulate in my own life.

6. Conclusion

The White House ballroom began as a vanity project: a way for Trump to leave a permanent mark on Washington D.C. When the East Wing was demolished and the project became tied to donors, lawsuits, and historic preservation fights, it already seemed to represent much of what people fear about this administration: arrogance, disregard for institutions, and the use of public power for personal glory.

Then came Cole Tomas Allen. He was not some abstract villain who can be easily dismissed as foreign, godless, or politically incoherent. He was an American, a Christian, a student, a tutor, and someone who had become horrified by what his country was doing. I can understand where he was coming from. I can understand why he looked at cruelty, lawlessness, and unchecked power and felt desperate to stop it. The Founding Fathers remind each one of us that violence is a justified tool to achieve these goals, and Allen seemed to take their advice and went to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with guns, a manifesto, and a plan to kill.

Whatever security failures made that possible and whatever political opportunities Trump seized afterward, the assassination attempt itself was wrong, because the ends do not justify the means. A righteous cause does not make assassination righteous.

That is where the morality of this moment becomes unavoidable. If we condemn Cole Tomas Allen for invoking Christianity to justify violence, then we must also condemn Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and every other powerful person who does the same thing from behind a podium, a pulpit, or a Pentagon-sponsored prayer service. Christian violence does not become holy because the state authorizes it. Bloodshed does not become righteous because it is aimed at people we have decided are wicked.

I do not believe violence will save us. I believe Jesus rejected violence, even when he faced state-sponsored torture and execution. If Christ is the King of Peace, then he is King of Peace when our enemies are violent, when our government is violent, and when violence feels tempting to us.

So, while I think he would be justified by the Founding Fathers and today’s Evangelical Christians, I cannot celebrate Cole Tomas Allen, but just as strongly I also cannot pretend his violence came from nowhere. It grew out of a country that has long romanticized and enacted revolution, armed resistance, divine warfare, and righteous bloodshed.

If we want to reject the fruit, we have to reject the tree.

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