The attempted assassination of President Trump at the Washington Hilton shook the capital, but quick action by the Secret Service kept the president, the first lady, and others safe. A 31-year-old California man, Cole Tomas Allen, is charged after allegedly firing shots and trying to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. BlazeTV host Rick Burgess reacted to the case with a spiritual reading, saying the hints in Allen’s life and manifesto point to demonic influence. This piece covers the attack, Allen’s background, Rick’s claims, and the troubling cultural trends he blames for producing violent actors.
Cole Tomas Allen is accused of coming armed with guns and knives and opening fire while trying to reach administration officials at the event. Thankfully there were no casualties and the president and others were evacuated safely by the Secret Service. The incident is serious and direct, and it exposed how fragile public safety can be when someone decides to act on homicidal intent. Republicans will point to the professionalism of the protection detail and the need to keep law and order front and center.
Rick Burgess said his first instinct was spiritual, not political, and that’s where he began when he dug into Allen’s life. Allen’s work as an indie game developer raised flags for Burgess, who described a mismatch between marketing and content; he quoted his concern plainly: “I have an issue with a game that involves fighting and shooting to be in any way, shape, or form deemed nonviolent.”
Burgess also homed in on Allen’s manifesto, where anti-Christian rhetoric and a disdain for Jesus’ teaching stood out. “One of the things he had a real problem with,” says Rick, “was the turn-the-other-cheek instruction from Jesus.” That rejection of a central Christian ethic, Burgess argues, is not just ideological disagreement but a moral dislocation that can precede violence.
He went further, saying the broader culture and parts of higher education push young people away from religious grounding. “Biblical truth is becoming hate speech, or it’s becoming, in this case, instruction that should be ignored. … We don’t have to look very far to see the demonic part of this,” he continues. Burgess names Allen’s academic background at Caltech and California State University as evidence that even bright people can be shaped by corrosive ideas.
Allen’s own writings outlined a plan to kill the president and other officials and admitted the plan would bring severe personal consequences, which Burgess read as another warning sign. “Remember one of the markers of demonic activity is that usually those that are possessed by demons — they are sent on a mission where they will be killed or they will kill themselves,” he says. That pattern, Burgess believes, shows manipulation toward self-destruction rather than clear political motive.
The manifesto also confessed to the emotional contradiction at the heart of the attack: Allen admitted his plan felt horrible even as rage consumed him. He wrote, “Oh and if anyone is curious is how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.” Burgess pointed to that internal conflict as fitting his demonic framework.
“And that’s where you see some markers of demonic activity,” says Rick, arguing that demons push people toward acts that destroy their lives or end them. He framed the story not just as a criminal case but as a symptom of spiritual and cultural decay, and he urged listeners to pay attention to how violence can be nurtured by evil ideas as much as by personal grievance. The case will move through the courts, but Burgess’s reading keeps the debate on moral and cultural soil rather than purely legal ground.
