A Hollywood talent agent has become an unlikely viral sensation after video footage showed him calmly eating his burrata salad as chaos erupted around him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with President Donald Trump being rushed from the room by Secret Service agents following a shooting in the hotel lobby.
Michael Glantz, a senior agent at Creative Artists Agency — which counts former President Joe Biden among its represented figures — was captured on camera in a tuxedo, fork in hand, serenely continuing his first course as fellow diners at the prestigious annual gala dived beneath their white-clothed tables. The footage has since spread rapidly across social media, with viewers finding his composure equal parts baffling and darkly comic.
The incident unfolded at the Washington Hilton on the evening of 25 April when Cole Thomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, allegedly opened fire in the hotel lobby after sprinting past Secret Service agents. Trump was immediately escorted from the ballroom, which had just been served the first course of a burrata and fresh-pea salad, ahead of a planned main course of filet mignon and lobster. Allen was arrested at the scene and is now facing firearms and assault charges. Officials confirmed he had no prior criminal record but was found to be carrying a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. Dramatic footage showed agents pinning him face down on the ground outside the hotel, his hands bound behind his back and covered in a foil blanket. Overnight, heavily armed agents raided a property in Torrance linked to Allen, who is understood to work as a teacher.
Among those present and reporting live from the scene was The Sun’s Editor-at-Large Harry Cole, who along with hundreds of other journalists and media figures pulled out his phone to capture the unfolding events.
Speaking to the press approximately an hour after the incident, Trump said he had initially mistaken the sound of gunfire for a dropped tray. It was Melania who first raised the alarm. “She told me about the ‘bad noise’,” Trump said, adding that it had been “a rather traumatic experience for her.” He described the First Lady as “very cognisant” and praised her composure. “She recognises it better than any. But she told me numerous times, she said ‘you are in a dangerous job.'”
Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after his evacuation to say he had recommended the event continue. Around 20 minutes later, White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang announced the dinner would resume “as soon as possible,” though by that point many guests had already left. Reporters later regrouped at a hastily arranged press conference at the White House briefing room.
The Washington Hilton holds a grim place in American political history. It was outside the same hotel in 1981 that an assassination attempt was made on President Ronald Reagan.
