Oz Pearlman Describes Chaos at DC Dinner After Security Breach, Shooting

Pearlman said he and others ‘army crawled’ away as Secret Service agents converged and the president was quickly escorted from the room.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were evacuated after shots were fired at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington on April 25.

Entertainer Oz Pearlman spoke about his experience being near President Donald Trump at the time shots were fired outside the Washington Hilton ballroom Saturday night.

The interaction took place at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25, which was attended by Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, other administration officials, and members of the press.

The president and first lady were quickly evacuated from the dinner at the hotel after a gunman shot a Secret Service agent after breaching a security checkpoint. 

Pearlman was slated to perform at the dinner and was giving a personal demonstration to the president and first lady when the incident occurred.

The entertainer told CNN’s Dana Bash on April 26 that his initial thought upon hearing a disturbance was that it was likely a medical emergency. That thought was quickly replaced by concern that a bomb was about to go off. 

“I see everyone swarming one table, and I’m looking and trying to understand. And then you see people getting down, and I personally thought … there was about to be a bomb. Like, I really, very much thought, ‘Oh, my God, it’s about to explode,'” Pearlman said.

Pearlman added he was concerned about a bomb, “because of the way it was being approached.” 

Security “wasn’t like guns out,” according to the performer, who said it seemed like they were converging as if to stop someone.

Pearlman said he was surprised at how hard Trump was tackled by his security detail, saying, “It was a tackle like it was NFL, and that would hurt anyone.” 

After the tackle, the performer was face-to-face with the president: “I’ll never forget the image for my whole life. … They bring the president down directly in front of me, and we just look at each other for about two seconds.”

He said the thought on his mind at the moment was, “Oh no, are we about to die?” just before he heard what sounded like shots. 

According to Pearlman, the president was then rushed out of the room, and he and others on the stage “army crawled” away from the area. 

The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner has taken place every year since 1921. The association has 900 members from 300 news outlets, including The Epoch Times and freelance journalists who cover the White House.

Previously, Trump had chosen not to attend the dinners, but on March 2 announced on Truth Social that he would attend the 2026 event in honor of the United States’ 250th birthday.

The hotel at which the dinner took place was the venue of an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan 45 years ago, on March 30, 1981, when Reagan was struck by a bullet after speaking at a union convention.

Chris Summers contributed to this report.