Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old part-time tutor and engineering student from Torrance, California, faces three federal charges, including attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, after authorities say he rushed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38-caliber pistol, and multiple knives.
A Secret Service officer was struck in the chest during the incident at the Washington Hilton, but sustained no serious injuries because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Allen was taken into custody at the scene and is accused of traveling from California with the weapons. He now faces charges of attempting to assassinate the President, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony.
Online Radicalization
According to a CNN review of over 4,000 archived posts from Allen’s now-deleted X account, “CForce3000,” and roughly 700 posts from a Bluesky account under the handle “coldforce,” Allen’s online presence went through a dramatic shift: He went from posting light-hearted video game commentary to posting increasingly hostile anti-Trump content.
By 2024, Allen was reportedly resharing posts that compared Trump directly to Hitler, as well as content claiming that Trump had staged the 2024 Pennsylvania assassination attempt against himself, per CNN. After Trump began his second term in January 2025, Allen’s Bluesky posts reportedly grew more desperate and violent in tone, with declarations that “no one has done sh*t.” In March 2026, just weeks before the attack, Allen wrote that putting a “traitor back in office” would inevitably lead to the nation “ripping itself apart.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that investigators believe Allen’s social media activity, combined with electronic devices seized from his belongings, showcases a deep hatred toward the Trump administration, per NBC News. Investigators are looking into any potential ties to left-wing organizations.
In a pre-attack email Allen sent to his family members – signing off as “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen” – he outlined a plan targeting Trump administration officials ranked from highest to lowest, and even included “rules of engagement” exempting hotel staff, Capitol Police, and the National Guard.
The Rhetoric Before The Attack
Allen’s comparison of Trump to Hitler was not original. Democratic politicians, media figures, and party organizations have made direct comparisons between Trump and the Nazi leader.
During the 2024 campaign, then-Vice President Kamala Harris (D) publicly called Trump a “fascist,” reported NBC News at the time. The Democratic National Committee projected the phrase “Trump praised Hitler” in large letters on the exterior of Madison Square Garden during a Trump rally, per CBS News. Then-vice presidential nominee Tim Walz (D) drew a direct parallel between Trump’s MSG event and a 1939 pro-Nazi rally held in the same venue, per Axios.
Hillary Clinton has also drawn the comparison on more than one occasion. On June 6, 2024, the former Secretary of State posted on social media comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler while commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, reported The Dallas Express. Previously, on May 21, 2024, Hiliary posted on X, “Take a look at Grifter Hitler over here…” with a picture of Trump that included an AP article.
The Nazi comparisons continued in 2025. In February of 2025, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker used his official state budget address to connect Trump to Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D), during an appearance on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, compared Americans of today to Germans watching Hitler’s consolidation of power in 1933. Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has repeatedly used Hitler rally footage in juxtaposition with Trump imagery. Even former Vice President Al Gore (D), while previously saying that those comparisons are problematic, used a Nazi reference at a climate event before pivoting to attack the Trump administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump after exiting the 2024 race, directly warned at the time that comparing an American political figure to Hitler would signal to “people who are already a little unstable” that the figure “should be killed before he gets into office.”
Words Have Weight
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt urged Democrats on Monday to consider how political language might contribute to violence, DX reported. She spotlighted recent examples, including a comment by Jimmy Kimmel before this weekend’s assassination attempt, when he referred to First Lady Melania Trump as “an expectant widow.”
