"Pedophile, rapist and traitor": the manifesto that Trump's attacker would have written

Barcelona"I am no longer willing to allow a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to stain my hands with his crimes." This is what Colle Allen, the man who shot at the dinner with journalists and Trump, allegedly wrote in a manifesto published by The New York Post, which has not yet been verified by authorities and which Trump used to claim that the alleged shooter was motivated by "hatred of Christians".

According to the newspaper, Allen sent the text to his family before the attack, and it shows rejection of various actions by the US government, such as assaults in detention centers, extrajudicial executions in the Pacific and Caribbean, or Washington's military actions against third countries. The attacker, a computer scientist graduated from the California Institute of Technology, is in police custody and has undergone a psychiatric examination. He is expected to appear before a federal court in Washington D.C. today, Monday, while his home in California has already been searched by the FBI.

Turning the other cheek is not Christian

"I am not the person raped in a detention center. I am not the fisherman executed without trial. I am not a school child blown up, nor a starving child, nor an adolescent abused by the many criminals of this administration", states the manifesto, where Allen says he acts in the name of all those affected by the policies and actions of the US government. "Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity with the crimes of the oppressor". According to this text, the target was not only Donald Trump but all public officials "prioritizing from the highest office to the lowest". In fact, the interim Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, said in various interviews this Sunday that investigators suspect that the target was not only the American president but also the people who work in the administration.

To reduce risks to personnel in the room who do not hold public office, Allen explains that he will use pellets instead of bullets. Nevertheless, he touches the crust of all attendees for having chosen to be part of an event led by "a pedophile, rapist, and traitor". Without naming him directly, Allen refers to Trump on several occasions with these three adjectives. And to the attendees of the dinner, he warns them that they are "accomplices" of the US president.

The attacker was carrying "multiple weapons" when he was subdued and immobilized against the floor. He would have bought them legally between 2023 and 2025 according to the FBI.

A relative's warning

According to NBC, Allen sent the manifesto to family members minutes before taking action. Still according to this media outlet's version, one of the relatives who received the message alerted the Connecticut police. But it wasn't much use, because Allen managed to enter the hotel and run past a security checkpoint, although he was immobilized before reaching the room where the dinner was being held. The shots that were heard occurred far from the diners and Trump.

Then, after the shots outside, security personnel evacuated the main authorities from the venue where the dinner was being held. The first to leave the stage from which Trump was about to give his speech was Vice President J.D. Vance. The American president, however, remained for 10 to 15 seconds observing the situation. "I wanted to know what was happening," he said tonight in an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes program.

When the agents tried to escort him away, Trump said he wanted to walk out, as he explained in the interview. "I didn't want to draw attention. I had already walked halfway when they told me: 'Please, get down on the ground. Please, get down on the ground.' So I dropped." Trump, who said he thought "a tray of dishes had fallen on the floor," also assured that he was not worried about the possibility of injuries: "I understand life in this crazy world."

During the interview on CBS, a tense moment occurred. The presenter, Norah O'Donnell, read fragments of the text in which Allen accuses Trump of being a "rapist" and "pedophile," which angered Trump. The American president, who last Saturday was attending a dinner with journalists, whom he often insults and has taken to court on several occasions, reacted by calling media workers "horrible people" and attacked the interviewer: "You are a disgrace."

Beyond the confrontation, the issue of security also appears in Allen's letter. "I expected security cameras on every corner, hotel rooms with hidden microphones, armed agents every three meters, metal detectors everywhere," says Allen, who assures that he has not seen "a single security measure." "Not in transport. Not at the hotel. Not at the event," he lists. "The event security is all outside, focused on the protesters," he says, and assures that his feeling is that "nobody has thought about what happens if someone checks in [at the hotel where the dinner was held] the day before," as he himself did. However, when he tried to bypass the security check, he was neutralized and the attack was thwarted.