On April 25, 2026, gunshots were fired near the security area at the annual White House correspondents dinner. Following the gunshots, President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President J.D.Vance, and some members of the cabinet were evacuated by the Secret Service. Trump attended the dinner for the first time as president. Journalists and news anchors present at the scene, including CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, described the shooter to be firing a “very serious weapon,” at least six times before being tackled by the police. The Secret Service stopped the suspect from entering the ballroom and took him into custody at the scene. There were four reported injured, including the suspect, and no deaths. The suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, 31, an educator from Torrance, California, holds an engineering degree from CalTech. Bin Tang, Allen’s professor at the time, said that he was a good student. “He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the front row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions…I am very shocked to see the news,” Tang told CBS News Allen’s students at the company C2 Education echoed Tang’s statements, saying that Allen was “entirely normal and friendly in their interactions” and they “express profound shock” about the news of the attack. Outside of work, Allen was a part of The Wide Awakes group, an artist led progressive activist network that started in 2020 inspired by a 19th century abolitionist group of the same name. He also attended a “No Kings” protest in California and donated to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in 2024. Before the attack, Allen sent a manifesto to his friends and family, stating his reasoning was “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” and that “this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.” Allen’s statements corroborates with a statement by one of his family members Allen referenced wanting to do “something” to fix the issues with today’s world. Allen was charged in federal court with three counts, including attempting to assassinate the president. On Monday May 11th, Allen pleaded not guilty to these counts. The case has yet to be moved to trial. On Tuesday May 12th, The US news conducted a survey about the recent shooting and nearly one in four of the Americans responded that the shooting was staged. This was also said about the shooting of his ear in June 2024 and another attempt at the Mar Lago golf course around the same time. 38% of the respondents believe that all three shootings were authentic. According to the survey, 34% of Democratic respondents were more likely to say that it was staged, compared to 13% of Republicans. Whether or not this was staged doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are in a world where political violence is becoming more common. Just because you disagree with someone, doesn’t give you the right to kill them. And we have lost sight of that basic truth. As more conspiracies spread and more information is brought to light, it is hard to determine where you stand on matters. So, I ask you as a reader: Be skeptical of everything, especially if you agree with it. Because now, questions are the closest path to the truth. Acknowledgement: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author, not necessarily Our National Conversation as a whole.
By Chandler Flowers
During Trump’s second presidency, Republican Representative Thomas Massie has frequently come under fire from members of his own party, despite being one of the most conservative members of congress. Although Massie holds a similar view with most of his Republican colleagues on abortion, gun control, and illegal immigration, his stance on other issues have caused President Trump to endorse his challenger in the upcoming Kentucky primary election. Massie’s “no” vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, his efforts to release the Epstein files, and non-interventionist stance on foreign policy issues have been the main reasons for attacks on him by fellow republicans. But these attacks will only backfire and damage the Republican party’s reputation as the defender of conservative values and liberties of American citizens. The GOP claims that its conservatism is as fiscal as it is social. But its record on deficit spending has shown a weaker fiscal record than one would expect. The administrations of Reagan, both Bushes’, and Trump all delivered massive tax cuts without proportional decreases in government spending, often with approval of Republicans in congress, keeping or increasing deficits of hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the last budget surplus period was during President Clinton’s second term, and the Obama administration delivered a steady decline in the deficit despite weaker tax revenues in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Republicans in congress have repeatedly voted against expensive proposals such as Biden’s Build-Back-Better plan and Obamacare, but expressed little concern over Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that will add trillions to the national debt over the next 10 years. Furthermore, with the Wars on Terror, 2026 Iran war, and massive increases to Pentagon budgets that have been supported in large part by Republicans in congress, they can forget about being fiscally responsible with spending too. Massie has even worn a “National Debt Clock” on his lapel for years to increase awareness of the unsustainability of federal spending, regardless of which party controls the White House. Trump’s cover up of the Epstein files has alienated much of his voter base, and congressional Republicans have repeatedly resisted Massie’s efforts to release them. He has not been afraid to work with progressive democrats, such as Ro Khanna of California, to expose Epstein’s network of clients who molested children for years and continue to go unprosecuted. Trump’s many meetings with Epstein have fueled great suspicion that Trump’s cover up was motivated by his participation in the sex trafficking rings, after his supporters had floated similar theories about Hillary Clinton, Pizzagate, and Qanon for years against the Democrats. Not surprisingly, the released Epstein files show numerous accounts of victims mentioning Trump over the span of many years. Lastly, and most importantly, Massie’s desire to keep America out of involvement in expensive, unwinnable foreign wars is the ultimate certification of his America-first adherence. He was widely praised for this position by Republicans during the Ukraine War under Biden’s administration, and called for the United States to withdraw from NATO. But his stance against Israel has generated very different reactions. He has called out the role of AIPAC in “babysitting” countless members of congress from both parties, and has criticized Israel’s military operations in Gaza that have left tens of thousands of innocent civilians dead. Massie has noted that these wars have added trillions of dollars to the national debt, and are often unsuccessful, whether in Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Massie has always been a fighter against government overreach. During the Covid pandemic, he asserted that vaccine mandates were unconstitutional, and voted against the CARES Act in 2020 that essentially funded Covid lockdowns, killing numerous small businesses and American jobs. He also supports eliminating Federal Income Taxes and the Federal Reserve Bank system, returning to a model of laissez-faire capitalism and minimal government regulation. His commitment to the values that America was founded upon should be rewarded by conservatives, even 250 years after the Declaration of Independence. Acknowledgement: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author, not necessarily Our National Conversation as a whole.
By Edward Kim
In May of this year, gasoline prices spiked to $4.50 a gallon, a 50% increase since the war in Iran began. According to a report from the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), consumer prices rose by 3.8% from April 2025 to April 2026, the highest inflation rate over the last 3 years. According to the same report, energy prices rose by 17.9 percent, largely driven by the current hostilities in the Middle East. Amidst all this, consumer sentiment has hit a new low: (Source: University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers) Something is clearly wrong with the economy, and consumers can feel it; however, it doesn’t look like any recession we have a textbook for. The unemployment rate is not high, and inflation, while higher than the target rate of 2%, is far from out of hand. And yet, according to the well-watched Michigan Survey of Consumers, consumer sentiment on the economy is at its worst in over 60 years. America is not in a recession, but perhaps we are facing something worse. Have we entered a period of stagflation? What Stagflation Actually Means Normally, unemployment and inflation have an inverse relationship. When the economy is growing fast, more money is circulating in the economy, creating more jobs as prices rise. A slowing economy leads to less spending and job cuts, as price inflation falls. When inflation rises at an unsustainable rate, meaning the economy is running too hot, the Federal Reserve increases interest rates to slow down spending. However, in the case of a contracting economy, the Federal Reserve cuts rates, and Congress spends more. This is the Keynesian framework, which suggests that the economy is usually pulling in one direction, growth or contraction, and the government can act as a counterbalance to maintain stability. Stability, however, is not always good, especially when it leads to stagnation, or even worse, “stagflation”. When unemployment and inflation go up together, the normal Keynesian framework and levers of monetary and fiscal policy are less effective. Have we entered one of these periods, the last of which was in the 1980s? The current numbers tell a certain story. According to the BLS report cited earlier, consumer prices rose 3.8% year-over-year, well over the 2% mark that the Fed targets as the natural rate of inflation. The unemployment rate is 4.3%, not historically high, but it is not low either, compared to 2023, when the unemployment rate was only 3.4%. Furthermore, labor force growth is projected to be “near zero” this year, suggesting a sluggish economy. However, the historical benchmark for stagflation is critical. The last notable case of stagflation happened between the 1960s and the 1980s, where inflation peaked at 13.5% with the unemployment rate pushing above 10 percent. Today’s inflation is barely a third of that 1980s peak, and the unemployment rate is not much higher than the pre-COVID-19 level, when the economy was booming in 2019. Therefore, calling the current sluggish job market “stagflation” is a stretch. A much more honest description is stagnation, where the structural conditions point to a stable, yet weak job market; possibly in a state of transition amidst a set of disruptions. A Few Unique Factors To Flag While America has not yet entered an era of stagflation, there are a few headwinds to consider: Tariffs are causing increased prices and reduced demand. Even after the Supreme Court struck down many of the Trump Administration tariffs, the U.S. average effective tariff rate now stands at 11 percent, the highest since 1943 (excluding 2025, where it was even higher). Tariffs are inflationary because they raise the cost of trade, as imported goods now incur a higher tax to come into this country for consumption. Not only does this mean consumers pay more, but American businesses also lose out on exporting goods, as other nations impose retaliatory tariffs. Based on a counterfactual analysis by the Yale Budget Lab, we can see how the Trump Administration’s tariffs deviated from the trend line and increased the price of goods: Had the new tariffs not been imposed, according to The Budget Lab, inflation would have trended downward (shown via the dotted lines) from January 2025 onward. Of course, we cannot take this evidence to be conclusive, as this is based on a probability model; however, when combined with the economic theory, this data tells a compelling story. In the long-run, however, the result is reduced consumer spending, which risks a deflationary effect and a reduction of job growth. In this way, tariffs have a dual effect: creating rising prices before creating a negative demand shock, which is the case in a contracting economy. The Iran War is, in my view, causing a bigger shock. The average price for a gallon of gasoline has risen to $4.50 as of May, a 50% increase since the war started after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in late February. The restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for 20 percent of global oil supply, is a point of great concern for the global economy and the U.S., the longer this war goes on. Here, the effect is more obvious when it comes to increasing prices, as gas prices are a method of calculating inflation. When gas prices go up, energy prices go up, and inflation is impacted significantly, leading to the highest year over year inflation rate in 3 years. AI-driven labor is a slower-moving shock. However, the way I would frame it is to say that it represents a technological shift. Recent graduates and young professionals, like myself, are being affected, with a decline in entry-level jobs by 35% since January 2023. On the one hand, AI investment is inflationary due to the productivity boom it brings and the increased spending on energy to maintain data centers. AI is intriguing because there is an argument both ways in terms of how it will affect the economy. There is a fear that as AI develops and eliminates entry-level jobs, the pathway for
By Vaibhav Sinha
Follow Us