Dana White was on hand for Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., skipping out on UFC Vegas 116 to attend the event that also saw Donald Trump in the house.
As it turns out, there might have been more action at the dinner.
A lone gunman attempted to breach security at the Washington Hilton — the same hotel where Ronald Regan was shot in 1981 — on Saturday, failing to enter the ballroom where Trump, White and other guests were housed but firing on law enforcement and secret service agents, striking one officer. That officer was saved by a bullet proof vest, according to President Trump.
The suspected shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California native, referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in communications with family members in the minutes before the attempted attack. Family members including Allen’s brother contacted authorities, though with the short timeframe, no warning could be sent in time.
In an interview with USA Today immediately following the event, which was in progress and ultimately cancelled, UFC CEO and President White recalled that there were “tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns, and they were screaming ‘get down.'” The longtime friend of Trump, who hosted the UFC at his Trump Taj Mahal casino on New Jersey early in the promotion’s run, added that “I didn’t get down. It was freakin’ awesome, I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience.”
White stated that he had been seated immediately in front of the American President. “We were sitting right in front of the table. Right in front of where the president was,” noted White. When asked if security had tackled anyone, at least from his view of the scene, White added that “nobody got tackled. Guys came in looking for shooters. They came toward our table. I thought the shooter was over by us or something.”
The shooter was apprehended and will be facing multiple charges.
In roughly a month and a half, the UFC will host Freedom 250 on the White House lawn in Washington, with roughly five thousand spectators exclusively invited, and tens of thousands more viewing on screens at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park immediately south of the White House.
Whether Saturday’s apparent assassination attempt on Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, both of whom were evacuated from the Washington Hilton, forces any changes to the White House card’s security remains to be seen.
