WASHINGTON—President Trump was ready to put on a show.
On his way to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday evening, the president told associates that he was excited to deliver his speech, calling it the “hottest ticket in town,” according to a person familiar with the matter. He and his advisers had packed his prepared remarks with jokes, including jabs at members of his own cabinet such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump’s attendance, his first as president, marked an uneasy truce with a press corp that his administration had spent years antagonizing and sometimes even threatening with rhetoric and legal action.
The dinner—known in media circles as “nerd prom”—is an annual black-tie event at the iconic wing-shaped 1960s-era Washington Hilton that brings together some of the biggest names in journalism and politics. While past presidents had routinely attended, Trump didn’t participate during his first term.
Instead of taking the mic as planned, Trump would be whisked offstage by Secret Service agents after shots rang out near the cavernous ballroom. Suddenly, what was meant to be an evening of celebration devolved into chaos.
Some in the room, from cabinet secretaries to aides and reporters who had been shaken by two prior assassination attempts on Trump, left grappling with the new reality that such violence has become a regular occurrence.
Washington’s elite
High-profile guests walked the red carpet and posed for photos Saturday evening, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and her husband, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. The entourage of administration attendees included Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and multiple cabinet members, who mingled with business executives, lawmakers and celebrities.
Traffic was limited on the streets surrounding the hotel, made famous as the site of an attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and a common meeting place for world leaders and D.C.’s elite.
Guests in tuxedos and gowns entered the hotel through checkpoints on the surrounding streets by showing a dinner ticket or a copy of an invite to one of several predinner receptions.
Attendees were able to access the Hilton’s lobby and lower levels without going through security scans, only passing through magnetometers as they entered the ballroom where the dinner was held.
A few minutes after the dinner’s scheduled 8 p.m. start time, leaders of the White House Correspondents’ Association stepped onstage at the front of the ballroom, along with Leavitt, Vance and event host Oz Pearlman, a mentalist. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were introduced, with the president stationed next to the association’s president, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter.
A military band played and the room stood for the national anthem before a break for dinner.
As guests took their first bites of salads in the humming ballroom, a 31-year-old man approached. He picked up speed as he ran at a Secret Service security checkpoint.
Pearlman was entertaining the first lady on stage when guests inside the ballroom heard shots fired.
Trump said later Saturday that he initially thought a tray had been dropped on the floor, but his wife worried it sounded more serious.
The president was pulled off the stage by law-enforcement officials but appeared to stumble as they moved him. A huddle of agents formed around Trump as he was removed. Vance was ushered away in the opposite direction, and others on the stage were directed into the wings quickly.
‘I don’t want to die here’
Several armed law-enforcement agents with long guns and helmets stationed themselves on the stage as it was being cleared of guests.
Agents spread out across the ballroom, standing on tables and holding their weapons. Cabinet secretaries were rushed out of the room, and a security staffer called out for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s wife, Kelly. Once he found her, he pulled her out from under a table and removed her from the room.
A waitress in the room cried out in Spanish, “I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die in this room.”
Attendees hid under tables and behind chairs. Wine spilled and serving trays clattered to the ground as people screamed and sobbed. Video footage from the event showed senior administration officials and cabinet secretaries, including White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Patel and Kennedy, crouching down.
Guests struggled with spotty cellphone service in the brutalist-style hotel’s basement ballroom while trying to call loved ones to let them know they were safe. Journalists attempted to contact their colleagues to dictate stories about the unfolding events. Many attendees stayed in the room.
Backstage, after the shooting, Trump told people he thought the event should continue, according to a White House official.
Jiang, from the White House Correspondents’ Association, appeared on stage shortly before 9 p.m. to tell the crowd that the event would resume, her voice shaking. Roughly 40 minutes later, she announced that the event would be canceled.
A video posted online showed Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in tears as she was escorted from the dinner. Charlie Kirk was fatally shot last year at an event at Utah Valley University.
Trump told aides he didn’t want to leave the Hilton, and he remained at the hotel as advisers tried to suss out what happened, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Shortly before 10 p.m., most people had filtered out of the ballroom, leaving behind a scene of a party interrupted. Tables were covered with partially eaten starter salads and half-eaten bread rolls. Red napkins were scattered on the floor. Some guests left with bottles of wine tucked under their arms.
Around 10:30 p.m. the president posted a photo on social media of the alleged shooter face down on the hotel carpet.
Protesters were gathered outside the Washington Hilton before and after the event. As guests trickled out late Saturday, a man waved a cardboard sign that read, “Death to All of Them.”
Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com and Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com