Following another attempted assassination of President Trump, Ryan Helfenbein exposes the deeper spiritual roots behind rising political violence — arguing that what appears political is, at its core, a battle of worldview, truth, and moral order.
This article is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.
On Saturday evening, April 25, 2026, at approximately 8:34 p.m., Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old mechanical engineering graduate and a teacher from Torrance, California, stormed a Secret Service security checkpoint outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel, where just inside President Trump, Vice President Vance, and key cabinet members, along with members of the press corps, had gathered for the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner (WHCD).
It was, notably, the first time President Trump had attended the dinner in either of his two terms. Cole Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. He opened fire, allegedly wounding a Secret Service agent — who was spared only by a bulletproof vest — before being tackled by a hotel staffer and taken into federal custody, alive, on the scene.
The President, the First Lady, and all administration officials were safely evacuated. No attendees were killed or hurt. Many important people were there; more on that in a moment.
And what we now know about Cole Allen gives us a very unmistakably clear picture of his motivation and intention. Minutes before the attack, he emailed his family a 1,000-word manifesto, signing it “Cole Allen” and including “coldForce” and ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ to his name.
His manifesto listed the Trump administration officials as targets, ranked from highest to lowest. It raged against Trump’s presidency, deployed vile slurs against the President, and expressed pointed anti-Christian hatred. Trump himself noted on Fox News: “When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians.”
Allen’s digital footprint aligned perfectly with his stated ideology, and it is nothing out of the ordinary when you consider other shooters more recently. His posts on the left-wing platform BlueSky demanded Trump be removed from office and tried for “high crimes.” Cole attended at least one “No Kings Protest,” and he had documented ties to a progressive activist group called “The Wide Awakes.” He made donations to the Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign of 2024.
Federal charges will now include a plotted and premeditated attempt to assassinate the President of the United States. Make no mistake: This was not a random act of violence. This was ideological and spiritual warfare unleashed yet again by a very troubled and tortured human being on the left
So, how should we think about this moment?
First, the motive is clear, but Monday morning political pundits will deny it and is very dangerous.
Within hours of the shooting, Allen’s manifesto was made public. His marked targets were named. His political ideology was well-documented, and he did not hide it.
And yet, there was an immediate reaction from the media and the political establishment, most famously Barack Obama, who took to social media to suggest that his motives were “unclear.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was right to push back, and she said it plainly: This type of rhetoric has “led crazy people to believe crazy things, and they are inspired to commit violence because of words.”
But here is what makes that denial so dangerous: It didn’t begin on Saturday night. Consider the record. In 2017, if you’ll recall, comedian Kathy Griffin posed for a now infamous photo holding what appeared to be a bloodied, severed head of President Donald Trump.
Days before the Correspondents’ Dinner, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel delivered a mock WHCD monologue on ABC in which he looked into the camera and said: “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” The First Lady called it exactly what it is — words that are “corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America.”
And then, perhaps most staggeringly, 20 minutes before shots were fired at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, CNN commentator S.E. Cupp sat on live television and described the correspondents’ association as a group of people trying to mend fences “with a guy who wants us dead.” Her exact words, 20 minutes before a man with a shotgun tried to prove her right.
Let us not forget Tyler Robinson, who in September of 2025 murdered Charlie Kirk — confirmed in court documents to have been politically motivated, with Robinson writing that Kirk “spreads too much hate.”
This is the environment. This is the climate. These are not isolated moments. They are a pattern that the left refuses to name because naming it would require accountability.
When the major institutions and figures of society — in the media, politics, and entertainment — refuse to name what we can plainly hear and see, they enable what comes next. We must call it what it is. Left-wing political ideology is, at best, contributing to a major mental health crisis in this country. At worst — and the evidence increasingly demands that we consider the worst — this radical ideology is putting people into body bags.
Second, there is now an undeniable pattern.
This is the third documented assassination attempt against President Trump in under two years. It also follows the September 10, 2025, murder of Charlie Kirk, allegedly by Tyler James Robinson — something confirmed by his confession. Robinson wrote that Charlie “spreads too much hate.” He also wrote on the shell casings, “Hey Fascist, Catch.”
“Assassination culture is spreading on the left. Forty-eight percent of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder someone like Elon Musk. Fifty-five percent said the same about Donald Trump.” This was a post by Charlie Kirk, was citing a peer-reviewed study from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University. The report found that political violence targeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk is becoming increasingly normalized. Charlie could see this trend of political violence.
After Kirk’s murder, Vance stated: “We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet.”
An NBC News poll after Kirk’s assassination found that 61 percent of respondents — including majorities of independents and Democrats — said extreme political rhetoric from media figures and political leaders was an important contributor to his killing. That was the first time in 15 years of NBC News polling that there was cross-partisan agreement on the role of rhetoric in political violence, and that is mainly coming from left-wing media.
Third, the roots of this violence run deeper than political ideology.
Politics is not what is fundamentally broken, and politics will not fix what is fundamentally broken. It is our sin nature and our moral and spiritual bankruptcy that needs fixing. We need a Savior, and His name is Jesus Christ.
Cole Allen’s manifesto expressed not only rage at the Trump administration — it expressed contempt for Christianity itself.
President Trump observed it plainly, “He hates Christians,” and we would do well to hear that. The ideological environment that produced Allen did not begin with electoral frustration. It begins with a worldview that is severed from the Creator.
And any civilization that legalizes the killing of its own children, born and unborn, has already normalized violence. If you can kill or disregard your own baby simply because you deem it unamusing or inconvenient, you can rationalize the murder of anyone, especially anyone you hate. And the transgender movement, which declares war on God’s image — male and female He created them (Genesis 5:2) — is a movement at war with all nature, including reality itself.
When a person’s framework for life is built on the ability to kill oneself or your offspring, then the leap to political violence is not far outside the bounds of that belief.
The darkness in Allen’s manifesto is downstream of a deeper spiritual darkness. It only manifests itself politically, but make no mistake, it is spiritual.
What must we do
We must speak the truth, and we must continue to pray for this nation. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 says, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.”
Pray for the safety of our President, our Vice President, and every official who serves under this very real and present threat of political violence. Pray also for Mrs. Erika Kirk, who was also present to witness this event over the weekend and no doubt emotionally relived the horror and the trauma of losing her husband just last year.
Pray that this nation would come to repentance and faith in Christ. There is only one Savior in America, and His name is Jesus Christ. America cannot afford to miss the opportunity to turn back to God. While the truth is compelling, time is not on our side.
If you recognize that America’s crisis is not merely political but spiritual, now is the moment to act. Your support fuels a mission committed to exposing truth, confronting cultural lies, and boldly proclaiming the hope found only in Christ. Make a tax-deductible gift today and stand with us in the fight to restore clarity, conviction, and courage in a nation that desperately needs it.
