The organizers of this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner undoubtedly expected to make headlines as the first such event President Trump has attended while president, but the event filled with journalists, Cabinet officials, and high-profile businesspeople got attention this weekend, not for witty barbs or feats by its mentalist host, but for being disrupted by a shooter.

A Secret Service agent by the entrance to the DC event, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot before the suspected gunman was swiftly apprehended by law enforcement (the agent is reportedly in good condition).

• However, Attorney General Todd Blanche said yesterday that Trump and his Cabinet officials were likely the intended targets.
• The alleged shooter was said to have written a “manifesto” and left behind writings denouncing the administration’s policies in his hotel room.

The suspect was identified by law enforcement as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, CA. President Trump described him as a “lone wolf” and “a very sick person.” The interim chief of the DC police said he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives. He is expected to be charged in federal court today.

The president was whisked away from the event after shots were fired shortly before dinner was scheduled to be served, just as the mentalist was trying to guess the name of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s soon-to-be-born baby. The event is expected to be rescheduled.

Undeterred, Trump wants to have a ball(room)

The shooting has raised questions about security in the hotel—which happens to be the same one where President Ronald Reagan also survived an attempted shooting in 1981—as there was security around the ballroom, but not the entrance to the hotel itself. And Trump said the concerns demonstrated why the $400 million ballroom he is seeking to add to the White House is needed.

The president has raised money for the ballroom from donors that include Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Google, and others, and demolished the East Wing to prepare for its construction. The project has been stop–start: Earlier this month, construction was temporarily halted by a federal court, which found it needed congressional approval.

But…even if the White House ballroom were completed, a private event like the Correspondents’ Dinner is unlikely to be held there.—AR

Trump called off sending top diplomats to round 2 of peace talks in Pakistan. The fate of the next stage of negotiations in Islamabad started to look dicey Friday evening, when Iran said it would not meet directly with US counterparts in Pakistan, and instead would be dialoguing with Pakistani officials, who could relay the information to the US delegation. Then, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday before US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner departed the US, prompting Trump to call off their expedition. On Saturday afternoon, Trump confirmed the cancellation, writing on Truth Social, “We have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Araghchi returned to Islamabad for a brief stopover yesterday before heading to Moscow.

Sen. Thom Tillis will stop blocking nomination of Kevin Warsh to Fed chair. The Republican from North Carolina, who on April 21 confirmed he would block the nomination of a successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell until the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation of him was dropped, said yesterday on NBC’s Meet The Press, “I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh. I think he’s going to be a great Fed chair.” The news comes following the DOJ’s dropping of a criminal investigation into cost overruns of Powell’s renovation of the Federal Reserve building on Friday, although US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro said in that announcement that she would “not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”

AI companies’ next great source of talent is…struggling software companies. AI firms have been eating software companies’ lunch in the stock market, and now they’re walking away with the popular kids’ table from the cafeteria all together. Sources told CNBC that Anthropic and OpenAI have poached executives from Salesforce, Snowflake, Datadog, and Palantir as high-level software employees see the writing on the wall in their sector. OpenAI, in particular, wants to pursue enterprise customers as a key source of revenue, which is something many top software execs understand intimately. Sales and go-to-market experience are particularly in demand.—HVL

The King of Pop might just be the King of Popcorn, too. Audiences rushed to see Michael this past weekend, giving the Michael Jackson movie the biggest global opening for a biopic ever, according to producer Lionsgate. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the movie, which had a final budget of $200 million, made:

• $97 million domestically.
• $120.4 million more overseas.

Is it actually good? It depends on who you ask. The movie, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jafaar Jackson, the late singer’s real-life nephew, has a stellar 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But critics mostly thought it was bad, so bad, shamone.

The elephant in the room

Some of the biggest criticisms revolved around the fact that Michael concluded in 1988, before he was publicly accused of child molestation. The original cut of the movie delved into some of the allegations, but those scenes were scrapped after the Jackson estate realized it had previously agreed with the accuser it was trying to depict not to feature that person in any film, per The Hollywood Reporter. The change required extensive and expensive reshoots.

A sequel is reportedly likely: And it could delve into the controversies, but the Jackson estate, which denies all allegations against Michael, would still be overseeing production, underscoring a problem that many authorized biopics face: When an artist or their estate controls the story (and music rights), the audience might not get the full picture.—BC

A JPow farewell bow? It might be the end of an era at the Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell’s term as chair ends on May 15, so this Wednesday’s interest rate announcement and press conference could be Powell’s last as chief. It’ll all depend on whether President Trump’s pick to replace Powell, Kevin Warsh, is confirmed by the Senate in time. Aside from that, Powell still hasn’t said whether he’ll stay on as a Fed governor, a term that expires in January 2028. Powell previously said he would stay on until there was a resolution to the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation of him. Federal prosecutors announced on Friday that the probe had been closed.

A big bag of Mag: More than one-third of the S&P 500 will report earnings this week, including five of the “Magnificent Seven.” Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft deliver results on Wednesday, then it’s Apple’s turn on Thursday. It’s also a big week for businesses based on brownish-black liquid: Starbucks and Coca-Cola will report earnings tomorrow, followed by ExxonMobil and Chevron on Friday.

Ready, willing, and Abel: New Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel will have some Omaha-sized shoes to fill on Saturday at the conglomerate’s first annual meeting without Warren Buffett at the helm. Buffett built the event into a massive attraction that draws tens of thousands of attendees every year. But it’s Abel’s show now, and shareholders will be hoping the so-called “Woodstock for Capitalists” doesn’t end up looking more like the “Woodstock ’99 for Capitalists.”

But wait, there’s more:

• Jury selection begins today in a high-stakes court battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
• Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in the US today for a four-day state visit.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to be on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for his first public testimony since the Iran war began.
• Q1 GDP numbers and personal consumption expenditures price index data for March will be released on Thursday.
• Gird your loins. The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters on Friday.
• The 152nd Kentucky Derby is on Saturday. Buy your fresh mint now, julep fans.

Quite the feat. Quite the feet. Two runners officially broke the two-hour marathon mark in London yesterday. (Take that, robots!) Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe ran 26.2 miles in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds, shattering the world record by more than a minute. Then, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha crossed the finish line 11 seconds later—not a bad effort for his first-ever marathon. Let’s hope they both BQ’d.

Sawe and Kejelcha were wearing Adidas shoes, as was the top woman, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, a nice tailwind for the German shoe company, which has been looking to get a leg up in the performance sports market. According to Bloomberg and researcher Circana, the US market for running shoes was up 13% year over year through February, hitting $8.1 billion.—BC

Turntable: Your center letter is O this week, surrounded by U, P, M, T, E, and C. How many of the 48 words can you come up with? Find out when you play Turntable here.

US capitals trivia

How many US state capitals have the word “city” in their name?