Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, has been charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, though plenty of questions remain about his intended target and whether he even got a shot off. But we can say one thing for certain: All those images you’re seeing that depict Allen in the attire of various sports teams are 100% fake.
Allen was first identified by the Associated Press late on April 25. The following day, AI-generated images purporting to show Allen in the clothes of different sports teams were popping up on Facebook.
The sports attire was associated with different sports and levels of play, including baseball teams like the L.A. Dodgers, hockey teams like the Montreal Canadiens, and colleges like the Oregon Ducks and the Michigan State Spartans.
The fact-checking site Lead Stories notes that many of the fake images were posted by a Facebook page called West Coast Sluggers with versions of the caption:
BREAKING: The shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been identified as 30-year-old Cole Allen from Torrance, California. Prior to the incident, he worked as a security staff member for the Los Angeles Dodgers and had appeared multiple times at their games.
That’s not true, of course. Allen is reportedly a teacher and engineer, and there’s no evidence that he ever worked as a security staff member for any sports team. It appears that the West Coast Sluggers account was using AI to take a photo of Allen and make him wear the attire of various sports teams, seemingly in an effort to grab the attention of people who are fans of those teams.
Other slop accounts on Facebook also spread the lies, like one focused on Ohio called The Ohio Spirit. Clicking on the link provided on that Facebook post takes users to a slop article that features ads from something called Capital One Shopping, which prompts users to install an extension that’s almost certainly going to do horrendous things to your computer.
Reporter Ellyn Briggs posted a video showing the examples she’s seen.
Here’s 45 seconds of Facebook telling me the alleged WHCD shooter was a former staffer of literally almost every major collegiate and professional sports team pic.twitter.com/HrZ2rTUl3E
— Ellyn Briggs (@EllynBriggs) April 28, 2026
Plenty of other nonsense was spreading after the revelation of Allen’s identity, including a news report that featured him from 2017. The video really did show Allen, but claims that it also showed Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, were untrue. The woman looked nothing like Usha Vance.
Allen has been charged with transportation of a firearm and ammunition through interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and the big one, attempting to assassinate the president.
Read the full article here
