DOJ cites attack, ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ in seeking ballroom approval

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/28/trump-ballroom-filing-national-trust-lawsuit/

The Justice Department’s motion — which is unusually written for a government legal filing and resembles Trump’s Truth Social posts — was one of several documents filed to the court late Monday night. The motion also criticizes the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, writing that the group’s “name is FAKE” and claiming that “they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS.”

It is not clear whether the White House Correspondents’ Association, a private organization, would seek to hold its annual celebration in the White House ballroom.

Trump has prioritized the ballroom for months, sometimes mentioning the project more frequently than other major policy priorities. But his efforts have ramped up since Saturday’s incident, and a growing number of GOP lawmakers and allies are now touting the need for a secure space, too.

Trump has also repeatedly mocked Leon and his ruling, calling him a “Trump Hating Judge” in social media posts.

Did Leavitt say there would be 'shots fired' before White House correspondents' dinner shooting?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/karoline-leavitt-shots-fired/

Claim:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there would be "shots fired" ahead of a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on April 25, 2026.

Correct Attribution

Leavitt made the comment while speaking to comedian and Fox News host Jimmy Failla about the expected content of U.S. President Donald Trump's upcoming speech at the correspondents' dinner. The phrase "shots fired" is a common figure of speech that refers to someone making jokes or jabs at another person. There was no evidence Leavitt's remark referenced the shooting before it happened.

Jimmy Kimmel Speaks Out After Melania Trump ‘Widow’ Joke Criticism

 https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump-widow-joke-fired-response/

He noted, facetiously, that if the Trumps really believe his remarks could have induced violence, they should also look into a remark made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt before the dinner. “It will be funny. It will be entertaining,” Leavitt had told Fox News. “There will be some shots fired tonight.”

While Kimmel said he understands that the incident may have been particularly “stressful” for the Trumps and agreed to reject “hateful and violent rhetoric,” he argued that the First Lady should first speak to her husband about dialing back inflammatory language against his critics and the press.

“Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I, as are all of us, because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech,” Kimmel said, while noting that he’s a vocal advocate against gun violence. “I am sorry that you and the President and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am,” he said. “Just ’cause no one got killed doesn't mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary, and we should come together and be best.”

Jimmy Kimmel on Melania & Donald Trump Demanding His Firing & The White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Kyiv summons Israeli envoy, EU warns of sanctions after 2nd ‘stolen’ grain ship incident

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-tells-ukraine-too-late-to-seize-russian-grain-ship-as-it-left-haifa-report-2/

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Monday that Israel’s ambassador had been summoned to his ministry over what he described as Israeli inaction in allowing shipments of grain to enter the country from Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Sybiha that Ukraine had provided no evidence to support allegations that the grain was “stolen.” He accused him of conducting diplomacy through the media.

In his response, also on X, Sa’ar said the issue would be examined, but that allegations were not evidence and no evidence had been provided.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to maintain a neutral stance between Moscow and Kyiv, even though Russia has been providing critical intelligence to Iran in the US-Israel war against Iran.

Trump Called Cole Allen Anti-Christian. His Manifesto Suggests the Opposite

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-cole-allen-anti-christian-manifesto-opposite-11884524

In a message sent to family members minutes before attempting to breach the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, suspect Cole Tomas Allen thanked his church family and invoked Christian theological traditions to justify the violence that was about to occur.

"Hello everybody," the message began. Over more than 1,000 words, Allen wove together apologies to loved ones, political grievances, and religious reasoning. He cited Scripture throughout and argued that Christians have a moral obligation to resist unjust authority through force.

Iran’s Ships Sneak Past US Blockade As Navy Hunt Goes Global

 https://www.newsweek.com/irans-ships-sneak-past-us-blockade-as-navy-hunt-goes-global-11872848

Shipping specialists say more than two dozen oil tankers have sailed through the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports since it began on April 13.

While the U.S. military says it has turned around scores of ships leaving Iranian waters, at least some of Iran’s “shadow fleet” has made it past the dense web of warships, surveillance planes and possibly satellites to reach loading areas in the Persian Gulf and trade routes on the high sea.

Trump's Lebanon gamble could undermine effort against Iran

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/27/trumps-lebanon-gamble-could-undermine-effort-against-iran/

Under pressure from the US president, the IDF has stopped strikes on Hezbollah's power centers. The terrorist organization, for its part, continues to violate the ceasefire. Israel must stop playing by Hezbollah's rules in order to disrupt its operations. In Gaza, too, greater sophistication is needed in the face of Hamas' military buildup, which could begin targeting IDF forces at any moment.

The restrictions imposed on IDF activity in Lebanon and the halt to strikes in Beirut are allowing Hezbollah to continue violating the ceasefire without fearing that the price it will pay will be unbearable. They leave the Lebanese terrorist organization in control of the location, timing, frequency and means by which it clashes with Israel, as well as control over the intensity of the escalation. In practice, this also gives Hezbollah the ability to set new rules and shape the equations of response against Israel.

President Donald Trump sought to restrain Israel in order to pave the way for diplomatic dialogue between Jerusalem and President Joseph Aoun's government. In practice, he has denied Israel part of the freedom of action it had until two months ago and allowed it to continue operating with one hand tied behind its back.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, the White House blames the left — and the media

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/27/in-the-wake-of-saturdays-shooting-the-white-house-blames-the-left-and-the-media-00894135

President Donald Trump, standing at the White House briefing room podium in his tuxedo hours after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting Saturday night, called for peace.

By Monday, the tone had changed.

Administration officials shifted to a more combative stance, insisting that the chaos that erupted at the dinner is a potent justification for a range of Trump initiatives — from his new White House ballroom, to the stalled fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security and even the ouster of late night provocateur Jimmy Kimmel.

It was a stark contrast from the president’s remarks Saturday evening, when he called for “Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives” to resolve their differences peacefully.In a room packed with journalists and high-ranking Cabinet officials, Trump observed Saturday, “there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together.”

Political violence jolts the US once again - with a familiar response

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cje4eeyq27lo

For many in the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday night, the scene was painfully familiar. Shots fired, confusion and panic, and a sense that the normal order of things had been violently interrupted.

Trump, reflective, calls for unity and a cooling of political rhetoric. News coverage speculates about a "new tone" from the president. Ultimately, partisan divisions reassert themselves – often with Trump leading the way.

On Sunday evening, in a sit-down with CBS' 60 Minutes programme, Trump blamed Democrats for creating an atmosphere that encouraged the shooting, then derided interviewer Norah O'Donnell as "a disgrace" and "horrible" after she asked about the manifesto written by the alleged assailant.

A ballroom by itself will not fully address safety concerns raised by Saturday's incident. Those concerns include how a man was able to bring weapons into a building hosting a president and top government officials, whether the security perimeter set out by the US Secret Service was sufficient, and whether guests in other parts of the hotel should have been screened.

Jeffries calls Karoline Leavitt a ‘stone-cold liar’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5851681-jeffries-leavitt-liar-political-violence-rhetoric/?tbref=hp

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday called White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt a “stone-cold liar” after she blamed Democrats for the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

“This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost. Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol on Monday,

“The notion that any of us are concerned with so-called criticism from these phony Republicans as it relates to anything that has been said — certainly as it relates to the comment related to ‘maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,’ in connection to the redistricting battle that Republicans launched — I stand by it,” Jeffries said Monday.

Trump’s hypocritical crusade on violent rhetoric — and the country’s emerging split reality

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/27/politics/trump-violent-rhetoric-analysis

A month ago, President Donald Trump unabashedly celebrated the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump said. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

On Monday, Trump and his White House responded to a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend by decrying Democrats’ supposedly beyond-the-pale rhetoric and labeling them a “cult of hatred.”

Their chief example of this kind of rhetoric? ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel telling a joke that made light of Trump’s potential demise. Days before this weekend’s shooting, Kimmel joked that first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

Apparently, it’s OK for Trump to celebrate a public servant’s death; it is not OK for Jimmy Kimmel to joke about Trump’s.

IDF strikes Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley for first time in 3 weeks as some towns in north cancel school

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-strikes-lebanons-beqaa-valley-for-first-time-in-3-weeks-amid-shaky-ceasefire/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2026-04-27&utm_medium=email

The IDF said it launched a wave of airstrikes Monday against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Beqaa Valley and several areas of southern Lebanon as a fragile ceasefire appeared to be rapidly unraveling just days after it was extended.

The strikes came following repeated recent attacks by the Iran-backed terror group on IDF troops and Israel during the truce, including a deadly drone attack in Lebanon the previous day that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Israel’s freedom to strike Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon on Monday, while Lebanon’s president, whose government is holding historic direct talks with Israel amid the ceasefire, condemned Hezbollah for attacks it has launched.

Correspondents’ dinner lacked highest security level despite presence of top officials

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/26/white-house-correspondents-dinner-security-status/

The Trump administration provided a lower level of security for the White House correspondents’ dinner than it has for other gatherings of high-ranking officials, even though the president and many Cabinet members were in attendance, according to officials familiar with the plan.

When so many officials gather in one place for official functions such as an inauguration or State of the Union address, the secretary of homeland security typically puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating all security through a formal designation known as a “National Special Security Event.”