Gunfire ended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, forcing the evacuation of President Donald Trump after a man armed with multiple weapons stormed a security checkpoint during the high-profile gala.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump revealed that U.S. law enforcement officers subdued the suspect, later identified as Cole Allen, amid a social media frenzy of controversial claims about the incident.
Trump initially urged organizers to “LET THE SHOW ON,” before confirming that authorities had ordered an immediate evacuation in accordance with protocol.
He added that the First Lady, Vice President and Cabinet members were unharmed and then shared images and apparent security footage of the suspect after he was subdued.
TRUMP Token Slides to Record Lows
The security scare capped a day that had already put Trump at the center of a different kind of volatility in the crypto markets.
Earlier on April 25, the president hosted 297 of the largest holders of his TRUMP memecoin at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The event, marketed as an elite gathering, featured a keynote address from Trump, while a smaller group of 29 top executives attended a private reception and champagne toast with him.
Notably, this is the second such event the President has hosted for the token in the past year.
Yet this presidential access has failed to eliminate the TRUMP token underlying the events, as it has lost more than 97% of its value in the past year.
According to CryptoSlate Data shows that TRUMP’s token price fell to $2.52, nearly 20% lower than the local 24-hour high, and a steep decline from the highs above $75 reached during the post-inauguration peak in January 2025. That also brought its market cap down by about $100 million to just $590 million.
The value erosion is strong in the total value. Data from CoinMarketCap shows the token’s market capitalization shrinking from nearly $10 billion early last year to around $618 million at the time of writing.
The research builds on President Trump’s crypto journey
The event has intensified criticism of Trump’s growing crypto footprint, with Democratic lawmakers calling for an investigation.
On the other hand, ethics experts have repeatedly pointed out the unusual overlap between presidential authority and personal financial exposure to speculative digital assets.
Meanwhile, crypto experts have also increasingly criticized the events and the token, with Simon Dedic, the founder of venture capital firm Moonrock Capital, proverb:
“The Trump memecoin dinner tonight is one of the most damaging things to happen to crypto’s reputation in years. Even worse than FTX or Luna. At least they pretended to be something legit before collapsing. But this is the President of the United States openly pulling out of retail, in broad daylight, and calling it a gala.”
Dedic also claimed that the President Trump-linked token has raised more than $4.3 billion from retail investors, while 45 insider portfolios have gained $1.2 billion.
Meanwhile, on-chain analysis also revealed that most addresses that attended the gala event “sold or transferred everything” immediately after the event.