Administration

Trump disputes ABC reporter’s account of call after WHCA dinner

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by Max Rego - 05/04/26 9:39 PM ET

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by Max Rego - 05/04/26 9:39 PM ET

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President Trump on Monday denied that he called ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl to check in on him the morning after the shooting in the vicinity of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.

In a video he posted to the social platform X on April 26, Karl said that Trump called him just after 7 a.m. EDT and asked if he was “okay.”

But more than a week after Karl, the longtime chief Washington correspondent at ABC News, recounted the call, the president claimed it never happened.

“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “No, this was a hit on ME, not HIM, and I didn’t make such a call, why would I do that?”

“He called me, but I didn’t take his call — He just confirmed that to me when he called again,” Trump continued. “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!”

Karl and Trump often speak over the phone, including on Monday. During that conversation, the president said that Iranian drones and missiles fired at the United Arab Emirates “were shot down for the most part” and South Korea “should take some action” after Iranian forces struck a cargo ship from the Asian country in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Hill has reached out to ABC News for comment.

On the morning after the incident, Karl said that Trump emphasized the need for “unity” and said that the WHCA dinner must be rescheduled.

Several White House correspondents told CNN that the dinner should be hosted again. Weijia Jiang of CBS News, the president of the WHCA, told members Friday that the association’s board is “working through options for a “rescheduled event,” according to CNN.

The suspect in the shooting, 31-year-old Cole Allen, was charged last Monday with attempting to assassinate Trump and other federal firearms violations. Allen appeared in court Monday for a detention hearing, after the D.C. Jail removed him from suicide watch a day earlier.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Sunday that investigators were able to “definitively” determine that the bullet that hit a Secret Service agent during the shootout was fired by the alleged gunman.

“It is definitively his bullet, he hit at that Secret Service agent, he had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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