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A court filing by prosecutors in the case against Cole Allen, accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, provided a glimpse into the 31-year-old’s mind in the days leading up to last weekend’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C.
According to the filing, Allen boarded an Amtrak train on April 21 after purchasing a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to the nation’s capital, stopping in only Chicago to change trains. While he rode, prosecutors say he “kept a running note on his phone of his observations and thoughts during his cross-country train journey.”
But those notes had nothing to do with Allen’s alleged plan to commit the ultimate crime. Rather, his musings along the way, in tandem with what he wrote in a later manifesto, paint a picture of an unfocused person whose thoughts were “scattered,” as one former FBI behavioral analyst said, despite the gravity of the situation.
Law enforcement officers detain Cole Allen following an alleged shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
While he traveled through the U.S. southwest on the first leg of his trip, Allen made a note: “[t]he southwest desert in spring Distant wind turbines looming like snowy mountains across the hazy NM desert.”
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Of Chicago, where he would switch trains and board a second train to his final destination, Allen wrote that, “Chicago is cool; kinda like an Iowa small town was scaled up to LA size.” Of the sliver of southwestern Pennsylvania through which he would pass, he wrote that the “woods are awesome (look like vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks in spring apparently.”
The train route taken by Cole Allen from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., with a stop in Chicago where he switched trains. Allen’s three-day journey began on April 21, 2026, and he took notes along the way. ( Digital)
Allen arrived in Washington, D.C. early in the afternoon on Friday, April 24. He spent about 30 hours in the city before initiating his alleged attack.
Surveillance video from the Washington Hilton hotel, also released by the Department of Justice, showed Allen apparently pacing through hallways, once entering the hotel’s fitness center and taking a look around before hastily exiting.
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Minutes before the attack, a pre-scheduled email from Allen was sent to his family and friends, explaining his actions, according to authorities.
He allegedly acknowledged that his mission would likely severely harm him at the least, but never stated that he was willing to die for his cause. His motivations were political, and he painted himself as a savior of the oppressed. He apologized profusely to family, friends and everyone he had come in contact with on his cross-country trek. He noted that there were certain people he hoped wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire, and described himself as “friendly.”
Surveillance video released by the Justice Department appears to show suspect Cole Allen rushing a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton with a weapon in hand during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. (Department of Justice)
Jonny Grusing served as a special agent in the FBI’s Denver Field Office for 25 years. For 13 of those years, he was the Behavioral Analysis Unit coordinator for the division.
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“His flippancy of what he was talking about in the train or writing about, coincides with what he writes in his manifesto as, ‘hello everybody, so I may have given a lot of people a surprise today,'” said Grusing. “I mean, that’s not someone who’s singularly focused on a grievance.”
“I would say he was conflicted. He’s apologizing to everyone, even people that he rode along the [train] with, which he’s not harming them in any way,” said Grusing. “But he’s apologizing to the people at work, he’s apologizing to his family and he’s apologizing to the people he might have to do violence to. Whether that’s him trying to convince whoever reads this, that he’s a not a bad person or that he’s conflicted … that’s not someone to me who seems single-minded that he’s going to be successful in his mission.”
A photo of Cole Allen in a graduation gown and cap from 2025. (Cole Allen/LinkedIn)
Grusing said Allen seemed “scattered,” and described him as a narcissist.
“The profiling unit taught us about dangerous human characteristics and the two I think that would apply to Mr. Allen are narcissism and psychopathy,” he said. “I think he’s become more narcissistic just from his writings, in saying that, ‘this is on me,’ ‘this is my problem,’ [and] ‘I have to act.'”
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“And then even him trying to manage other people’s perception of him, like the people that rode on the train with him and helped him with his luggage, they weren’t affected by this at all,” said Grusing. “But yet he feels like he’s impacting all of society by doing what he’s doing, which again, that’s what makes me think, when he makes these little statements and apologies to everyone, he’s saying, ‘I’m going to become a national name by doing this. Look at me.'”
“So he’s putting himself as this martyr, as this patriot, as the only one who can really fix this thing that’s broken, and that’s very dangerous.”
Digital reached out to Allen’s attorney.
