April 25 saw the unfolding of the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting. This is the first WHCD that President Donald Trump has attended, as he has previously boycotted the event.

Junior Samuel Buck gives his take on the shooting.

“This is a clear example of a man who the public doesn’t want in office,” Buck said.

Buck explains that, despite rumors of the event being staged, he remains skeptical.

“I think that people jump to conclusions a bit too quickly sometimes,” Buck said. “Although there may be some evidence for it being staged, accusations like that are harmful and only serve to radicalize people. Although yes, he’s a terrible president and yes, it’s not exactly punching down to say he’s staging these attacks to ‘distract from the Epstein files’ or ‘because his polling numbers are too low,’ it’s still harmful, no matter if he’s the president or not.”

Senior Calvin Mackey gives his take on the shooting.

“I didn’t even know the Correspondent Dinner was happening, to be honest,” Mackey said. “I was hanging out with a friend, and I think we were in the middle of watching Saw, when they got a call from their father saying there was another assassination attempt on the president. I was and wasn’t surprised. There’s so much political violence in the world that I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t happened more often. Mr. Huffman told my political science class that Trump doesn’t sleep on Air Force 1; he just stays up and looks out the window for other planes targeting his plane. You’d think that if you’re that paranoid, you might think something is wrong, right?”

Mackey explains the parallels between this event and other assassination attempts.

“This one, and the first one at his election rally in 2024, were both in political settings and very much in the public eye,” Mackey said. “The first one was a public event that anyone could attend at his re-election rally in Pennsylvania, and this one was a fundraising event for the White House Correspondents’ Association. This event was more private, but tickets were sold to news organizations with association members. The second one happened at his private golf course, which is sort of the outlier in this.”

Mackey, similar to Buck, remains skeptical of the question of whether or not the event was staged.

“If you think this was a cover-up, you might be a little too chronically online,” Mackey said. “I can understand the narcissism of the president wanting to be viewed by domestic and foreign dignitaries as a victim just to rally support, but an attempted assassination is a little too far. Of course, going as far as murdering someone solely for disagreeing with you is a horrible, horrible act of violence and should never have happened. An entire world war was started because of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. With the state of the world, we need to work closer to living peacefully by being peaceful, through protests, boycotts, and conversations, rather than fighting for peace with violence.”

Bryan Looker, a history teacher at the high school, gives his take on the event.

“Unfortunately, there have been three significant attempts on President Trump’s life as either a candidate or sitting president,” Looker said. “The similarities of all three are that they were carried out by lone wolves. All three also had shared reasons for their actions to some extent online prior to the attempt. The one thing that makes this attempt dramatically different from the others is that it took place inside. Even though the potential shooter breached one perimeter, he never made it into the room where the president was. In the case of Butler, the shooter was on the roof of a building overlooking a rally. The attempt in Florida was along a fence row hidden by shrubs.”

Looker addresses the claims of a staged event head-on and criticizes them.

“I would not want to come off as glib, but my first response to this is to get a life,” Looker said. “The internet can be a powerful tool if used responsibly. Unfortunately, millions of people do not. Conspiracy theories before the internet traveled relatively slowly. The truth and facts oftentimes could at least keep pace with those wishing to spread rumor or outright lies. That is not the case anymore. Within minutes of the incident, countless people posted their personal thoughts and beliefs. Most of these individuals have little to no interest in waiting for facts. “