Trump slams ABC reporter Jonathan Karl for claiming the president called HIM just hours after shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Donald Trump flatly denied a claim by an ABC News reporter on Monday that he personally rang the journalist in the hours after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The President described Jonathan Karl’s account of events as ‘very dishonest reporting’ after ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent said Trump called him up the following morning to check that he was okay.
In a blistering post on Truth Social, Trump directly challenged Karl’s version.
‘Jonathan Karl, of ABC Fake News, made a statement that I called him early in the morning, the day after the assassination attempt, to ask whether or not HE was OK.’
‘No, this was a hit on ME, not HIM, and I didn’t make such a call, why would I do that?’ he added.
The President went further still, asserting that it was Karl who had attempted to reach him.
‘He called me, but I didn’t take his call – He just confirmed that to me when he called again,’ Trump wrote.
‘I would say that’s very dishonest reporting. He’s trying to make himself look important but, I’m not surprised, because it comes from ABC Fake News!’
Jonathan Karl said in a video that he had received a call on his landline from Trump shortly after 7am
Trump countered that it was Karl who attempted to contact him, asserting that he did not answer the call and that the reporter later confirmed making the outreach
Donald Trump publicly denied calling ABC journalist Jonathan Karl after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, stating on Truth Social that the claim was ‘very dishonest’
Karl had publicly described a dramatically different sequence of events.
In a video posted to X the day after the dinner, the reporter said: ‘I got a call this morning on my landline about a little after 7am. Not a lot of people call me on that number these days. But it was the president.
‘It was President Trump calling, he said, to see if I was okay with all that happened last night, to see if I was okay,’ Karl continued adding that the two ‘spoke for a few minutes.’
Karl, a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said Trump ‘reiterated what he said last night about feeling unity in the room’ and emphasized his desire for the dinner to be rescheduled quickly.
He also recounted that Trump praised the security response, saying that the President was ‘marveling at the Secret Service’ and the job they did in protecting him.
Later that same day, Karl repeated the claim on ABC’s This Week while speaking to George Stephanopoulos.
‘He said he was calling at first, to see if I was okay with what happened last night. ‘Are you okay?’ Karl said on air. ‘And then he reiterated many of the things he said at his press conference last night.’
The dispute comes in the aftermath of the violent incident that stunned Washington.
The ABC News veteran posted a two-minute long recounting of his phone call with Trump
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, has been held in 24-hour lockup since he was placed in federal custody
Shots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after Allen tried to sprint past Secret Service
Allen charged Secret Service agents while carrying a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in an alleged assassination attempt
Authorities say a gunman, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25 – an event attended by hundreds of journalists, government officials, and the president.
Federal prosecutors allege Allen, 31, carried a pump-action shotgun along with other weapons and charged toward security checkpoints before being stopped within seconds.
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said investigators determined that a pellet from Allen’s shotgun struck a Secret Service agent’s bullet-proof vest.
The agent survived the encounter, and Allen, who was injured but not shot, remains in custody facing charges including attempted assassination of the president and firearms offenses that could carry a life sentence.
Officials say the attack unfolded rapidly within a heavily fortified security perimeter.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the setup, saying the threat was neutralized almost immediately.
‘The site was set up perfectly,’ Curran said in a Fox News interview, noting how there was multiple layers of protection between the public entrance and the president.
