CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported Monday that would-be Trump assassin Cole Allen made a radical shift in his social media posts, echoing harsh rhetoric Democrats have directed at President Donald Trump.
Appearing on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Kaczynski recounted that he and his team reviewed 4,700 social media posts by Allen on X and BlueSky. “They included comments that compare President Trump to Adolf Hitler, and encourage others critical of his presidency to purchase guns,” the CNN journalist said.
The Justice Department charged Allen, 31, on Monday with three felony counts, including attempted assassination, after the California man allegedly charged a security checkpoint and opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
Other charges against the Californian included “transportation of a firearm & ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence,” according to the Department of Justice news release. The weapons in his possession were a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, and multiple knives.
Kaczynski told Burnett that Allen’s social media posts showed a very clear shift starting around the 2024 presidential election.
“Those posts show … early on he was using his Twitter account mostly to post about [non-political content], but then in 2024, this changes, and he’s sharing a lot of political content that’s very, very critical of Donald Trump,” he said.
“Now, Allen appears to have started posting on BlueSky in February 2025 — just a few weeks into Trump’s second term. The account frequently criticized Trump, administration policies, and lamented that more powerful figures weren’t taking action against the president,” Kaczynski recounted.
WARNING: The following social media post contains vulgar language that some may find offensive.
New @KFILE reporting on thousands of posts appearing to be from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting suspect, including messages comparing Trump to Hitler and urging people to buy guns. pic.twitter.com/yr8New0lWf
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) April 28, 2026
“He wrote in one post, ‘Everyone knows Trump is a f***ing awful person in multiple dimensions and no one has done s***,” Kaczynski said.
In his manifesto, Allen wrote, “And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
He added, “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.”
Democrats and liberal media outlets have sought to link Trump to the conduct of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They have also characterized E. Jean Carroll’s 2023 win in a civil case lawsuit for an alleged sexual assault in a department store dressing room in the 1990s as a criminal rape conviction. Trump denied in sworn testimony that the incident ever took place.
Trump ended his friendship with Epstein in the early 2000s and later barred him from the Mar-a-Lago club following reports Epstein had harassed an 18-year-old employee. This was a year before a Florida jury indicted Epstein for soliciting prostitution for someone under 18, PBS reported.
After CBS’s Norah O’Donnell read Allen’s manifesto, in part, to the president during a Sunday interview, he responded, “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody. I’m not a pedophile … You read that crap from a sick person.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that, because I’m not any of those things,” he added.
NEW: Norah O’Donnell plays dumb as Trump tears into her after she brought up how the shooting suspect called him a “r*pist” in his manifesto.
O’Donnell: “He also wrote this: ‘I’m no longer willing to permit a ped*phile, rap*st, and traitor…’”
Trump: “I was waiting for you to… pic.twitter.com/t9tnqqrCGF
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 26, 2026
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that Democratic rhetoric is partly to blame for the violent acts directed at Trump and his supporters.
Leavitt said during Monday’s news briefing that the “Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist, and they compare him to Hitler. These are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years.”
“The entire Democratic Party has made their pitch to voters across the country, that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist, and they compare him to Hitler.”@PressSec lays out some of the many examples of Democrat rhetoric fueling violence: pic.twitter.com/0U5mnwArUp
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 27, 2026
She cited Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said, “Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
Last fall, Pritzker took several minutes of a podcast to liken actions taken by Trump and his administration to Nazi Germany.
Similarly, in 2024 — when Allen’s social media posts shifted, according to Kaczynski — CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked the Democratic presidential nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”
Harris (who is from California, the would-be assassin’s home state) responded, “Yes, I do.”
CNN: “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”
Kamala Harris: “Yes, I do. YES, I DO!”pic.twitter.com/cARpgWhzIS— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 12, 2025
Her running mate, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, said during the 2024 campaign, “No one has ever been more dangerous to this country than Donald Trump, and he is a fascist to his core.”
Leavitt concluded her thoughts on the subject of Democrats’ overwrought rhetoric Monday by saying, “When you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this every single day for years, you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill.”
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