The Secret Service said in a statement that it was investigating a shooting near the main security screening perimeter for the event.
“The president and the first lady are safe, along (with) all protectees,” the agency said. “One individual is in custody.”
It was not immediately clear whether the assailant fired shots, or security agents responded to the threat with gunfire of their own.
A White House aide earlier said Trump was safe after a freelance photographer working for Reuters heard four to six loud bangs in the hotel but not the immediate vicinity of the dinner.
Multiple media reports said there was a gunman.
Dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people started screaming “Get down, get down!”
Hundreds of guests dove under the tables as Secret Service officers in combat gear ran into the dining room. Trump and the first lady had bent down behind the dais before being hustled out by Secret Service officers.
Trump stayed backstage about one hour, a source told Reuters. “We are staying,” he was overheard saying, the source said.
Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled to the front of the dining hall.
Police swarmed the Washington Hilton Hotel where the event was taking place, and helicopters hovered overhead.
The pool report said the alleged shooter was in custody, citing the Secret Service.
Shortly before being escorted off the stage by security, Melania Trump appeared to react to something in the crowd and had a concerned look on her face, according to a live feed from CSPAN.
Vice-President J.D. Vance and members of Trump’s Cabinet, who were also in attendance, were also rushed out, said CNN.
It added that Cabinet members are safe as well, citing an administration official.
Unconfirmed reports suggested one person was injured, though details about the cause of the injury were not available.
The incident erupted after the welcoming speech and during dinner, before Trump was due to speak.
Trump administration officials appeared to have been evacuated first and uncertainty remained as to what exactly happened.
A cabinet official, Mehmet Oz, said “shots fired upstairs” as he was rushed out by security.
Also seen being rushed out of the ballroom was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr – whose uncle, president John F. Kennedy, was felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
Alexandra Ingersoll, a correspondent for One America News, told AFP she was inside when the commotion began, and saw Secret Service spring into action to protect the president.
“I just ducked under the table and I was like ‘I’m not going to risk this,’” she told AFP. “I didn’t know if the shooter was neutralized or what was going on.”
With still few details on what actually occurred, the entire ballroom was ordered evacuated, and several hundred guests made their way into the Hilton lobby and out into the chilly air.
Guests were seen hugging, making calls, texting friends and loved ones, and their news bureaux.
At about 8:40 p.m., an AFP reporter saw police officers racing through the streets surrounding the Hilton, lifting barriers, ushering passersby over to different streets, and clearing cars from the area as quickly as possible. A helicopter circled overhead.
A few minutes later, a motorcade left the Hilton, in the direction of the White House.
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. A gunman fired several shots, killing a rally goer and lightly wounding the president in the ear.
A few months later, another man was arrested after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of a rifle poking from the bushes on the perimeter of the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.
The Washington Hilton where the April 25 gala was taking place was the site where former president Ronald Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981.
Organizers told guests that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner would continue despite the incident.
Trump was attending the event for the first time while in office.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) invited Trump in 2026 despite his repeated attacks on the media. The move had drawn backlash across newsrooms, and hundreds of journalists signed an open letter asking attendees to call out Mr Trump’s press restrictions.
Unlike all other presidents from the past 100 years, Trump has never attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner while in office – until now.
The “Nerd Prom” as attendees dub it brings together hundreds of Washington journalists and media executives to raise funds for scholarships and awards.
In the Butler shooting, Trump was grazed on his right ear when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop while the Republican presidential candidate was holding a campaign rally in Butler on July 13.
One person in the audience was killed and the gunman, Thomas Crooks, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
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