• Cole Allen charged: The third failed assassin of President Donald Trump appeared in court for the first time on Monday. Cole Thomas Allen faces charges of attempted assassination of the president, transportation of a firearm across state lines to commit a felony, and discharging a gun. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explained in a press conference that Allen shot one Secret Service agent, striking his bulletproof vest, before the agent returned fire. Allen was not shot but fell to the ground under fire and was quickly arrested. DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Allen’s manifesto made it clear that he was targeting Trump and other top Republican officials. There will be more charges as the investigation unfolds. This is the third time radicals have attempted to kill Trump since June 2024. The president and America need to be lucky every time; the radicals need only be lucky once.

• Hakeem Jeffries refuses to cool rhetoric: In the wake of another assassination attempt against President Trump and members of his administration, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected calls to tone down his rhetoric. “I don’t give a damn about your criticism,” Jeffries stated in response to Republican lawmakers. He stood by his incendiary comments, arguing that there’s “maximum warfare everywhere, all the time, in connection with the redistricting battle that Republicans launched.” When he was informed that the would-be assassin used similar rhetoric to what Democrat lawmakers have been saying, Jeffries played dumb, saying, “I haven’t had an opportunity to read the manifesto.” Political violence is “unacceptable,” he added. “Period. Full stop.” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella observed, “Democrats are playing with fire and pretending they don’t smell the smoke.”

• Ballroom gains traction: Senate Republicans, led by Lindsey Graham, are pushing a bill to authorize the proposed White House ballroom with renewed vigor following the attempted assassination on Saturday. Graham explained, “Had there been a presidential ballroom … the guy would have never gotten in.” The proposed ballroom would have bulletproof, droneproof glass, as well as a military complex beneath it, to enable a rapid response to threats. The senators propose paying the estimated $400 million bill with national park user fees and customs fees. Democrat Sen. John Fetterman expressed support on social media, calling on fellow Democrats to “drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom.” A frivolous lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation is one of the chief hurdles delaying construction, but the group said it would not drop its case despite calls from the DOJ to do so.

• Florida gerrymandering threat: In what amounts to a tit-for-tat, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened that the Sunshine State could work to redistrict and present a potential map that would likely eliminate four Democrat House seats, which would effectively cancel out Virginia Democrats’ ridiculously gerrymandered map advantaging Democrats. “Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since,” DeSantis argued. “Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court green-lighted the Texas legislature’s redistricting effort, allowing the Republican majority to move forward with its new map that advantages Republicans.

• Fire Jimmy Kimmel: First Lady Melania Trump called for the firing of late-night host and “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel on Monday following a distasteful joke in which he said she glowed like “an expectant widow.” Kimmel’s comments came from a parody video on his show last Thursday, in which he appeared to be speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. After a radical leftist academic really did try to assassinate President Trump at the WHCA dinner on Saturday, Kimmel’s remarks appeared even more distasteful. Kimmel defended himself on Monday night, arguing that his comment was a very light joke poking at the age gap between Melania and Donald Trump, not a call to assassination. He added that if Melania wants to turn down the rhetoric, she needs to start by talking to her husband, who has had three attempted assassinations against him in less than two years.

• FRC helping DOJ against SPLC: The Family Research Council knows the Southern Poverty Law Center well, as it has long been targeted and illegitimately labeled a “hate group” by the leftist organization. Indeed, the FRC was infamously attacked by a leftist radicalized by SPLC propaganda that smeared the FRC. It’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” FRC President Tony Perkins explained. “We were interviewed by the FBI early on in this investigation because of our knowledge of the Southern Poverty Law Center. I think there’s going to be more charges that come throughout this process.” Perkins further noted, “We’ve been working to expose [SPLC] for over a decade, and now … what America sees is this is like a fire department hiring an arsonist, paying the arsonist to go out and set fires so that the fire department could raise more money.”

• Border Patrol surge: After a spike in illegal immigrants running from authorities in the Laredo, Texas, area on the southern border, hundreds of Border Patrol agents are being diverted to help reinforce security. At least 200 agents from both the northern and southern borders are being called to serve 30 days of volunteer duty as the number of “gotaways” increases. Border security is far better than it was under the Biden administration, with the Laredo border sector seeing only hundreds of captured illegal immigrants recently, but with a spike to 1,242 in March. Some agents on the Canadian border say they are already stretched too thin to cover the largest land border on Earth and won’t volunteer to help. Border security will remain a constant issue for the most prosperous nation on earth, but curbing a rampant handout system might help.

• California adds wealth tax, voter ID to ballot: It will reduce state revenue, but California has enough signatures to put the “one-time” wealth tax on the November ballot. The initiative will impose a 5% tax on people worth more than $1 billion, applying to billionaires who were residents as of January 1 of this year. Meanwhile, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom and his cronies working hard against it, a voter ID petition has collected 960,000 signatures and will also be on the November ballot. Among other security changes, the measure aims to ensure that no anonymous mail-in ballots are cast. Hot Air’s Beege Welborn says it will “require voters to present a government-issued ID for in-person voting or provide the last four digits of a government-issued ID designated during voter registration for mail-in voting.”

• Pentagon gets court win over journos: The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Department of War, lifting a lower court’s ban on the Pentagon’s new rule requiring an escort for all journalists to gain access to the building. “On this record, the Department is likely to succeed in its argument that the escort requirement in particular is a new, generally applicable requirement that is not invalid for violating the district court’s summary judgment order or the constitutional principles underlying it,” the court wrote. This decision will, in particular, frustrate The New York Times, which has opposed War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to clamp down on leaks and unfettered access to Pentagon personnel.

• Former Fauci adviser indicted for concealing records on COVID origins: Dr. David Morens, who served as a senior adviser to Anthony Fauci from 2006 to 2022, has been indicted by the Department of Justice. Morens has been charged with destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations. The specific alleged crime is concealing information to suppress alternative theories about the origin of COVID-19, likely referring to the “lab leak” theory, which seems increasingly likely compared to the once-official “wet market” theory. Acting AG Todd Blanche said these actions represented a “profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most.”

Headlines

• FBI raids nearly two dozen Minnesota childcare centers (NY Post)

• United Arab Emirates leaving OPEC, effective May 1 (CNBC)

• Medical workers at border stole millions from DHS by fabricating travel expenses (Washington Times)

• Appeals court defends ICE in suppressing Portland riots (Washington Times)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.