Gunman incident at the 2026 “Nerd Prom”

The White House Correspondents Dinner is mostly known for being a ritual in which the national press shows its fealty to the President. Its nickname is the Nerd Prom. Part of the ritual is for the President to give a humorous speech making mild fun of himself and of the other prominent figures.

One of the low points for this annual event was in 2004 When Goerge W. Bush joked about looking for the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.” which was the lie he used about Iraq to justify invading it in yet another illegal war. It was downright macabre. Including the raucous laugh it drew from the Very Serious Reporters at the event. It is a reminder of how low the national press corps and the sponsoring White House Correspondents Association in particular had sunk that they continue the same ritual into future years. (1)

There was a shooting incident at the event last night (April 25). A suspect is in custody. Presumably there will be a lot of reporting on him over the next few days. It’s an obvious assumption to make in a case like this that the gunman intended to shoot the President. But as of this writing, we don’t actually know that.

News report on the event: (2)

Gun violence has become so normalized in the US, and mass shootings in schools in particular, that the previously anodyne phrase “thoughts and prayers” had become a synonym for “I don’t give a s***.” That became the standard phrase Republican politicians use after such a mass shooting before they go on to defend the unrestrained proliferation of small arms in the US. That gun proliferation also plays a key role in drug gang violence in Mexico, because most of their weapons come from the US.

There will be plenty of tiresome and dumb commentary on tis over the next few days. The Trump cult media will do their best to blame Democrats for it somehow.

When – and I mean when not if – the Trump cultists blame the Democrats for this somehow, what a real press corps would do whenever some Republicans suggests that is to immediately ask them if they personally condemn the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by Trump ICE Gestapo in Minneapolis. We don’t know at this moment what the gunman at the Correspondents’ Dinner intended. But we all can see the real-time footage of the murders of Good and Pretti. And we know that the Trump regime continues to shield the murderers from prosecution.

Notes:

(1) Bush jokes about searching for WMD, but it's no laughing matter for critics. Guardian 03/26/2004. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/26/usa.iraq> (Accessed: 2004-26-03).

(2) White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter arrested and identified. Sky News Australia YouTube channel 04/26/2026. <https://youtu.be/rn_LamYwVeg?si=bqSzNkaUCkcJRDdY> (Accessed: 2004-26-03).