Mentalist Oz Pearlman reacts to WHCD shooting: ‘Are we about to die?’
· Toronto Sun
Just as a shooter stormed into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, mentalist Oz Pearlman was performing a magic trick for Donald Trump.
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Pearlman, who came in third place on Season 10 of America’s Got Talent , is a mentalist known for being able to guess people’s secrets.
On Saturday night, Pearlman was brought in as part of the evening’s entertainment.
Speaking to Variety , he said that Trump, 79, was eager to see his act.
“He shook my hand and told me he’s heard how great I am, and that he’s very excited and he’s staying for my show,” Pearlman told the outlet. “That was a big checkmark because that was never a sure thing. Right away, I texted my wife, ‘Great news. The show is gonna be awesome.’”
After trying out some of his routine on Vice President JD Vance, Pearlman was encouraged to perform some of his trickery on the president.
“I didn’t take one bite of salad,” he said. “I got to work.”
Mind-reader was guessing pregnant Karoline Leavitt’s baby’s name
As the night got underway, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt challenged Pearlman to guess the name of her unborn child.
“Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary … goes, ‘Can you guess what I’m naming my daughter?’ And so this was happening backstage,” he told ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl . “We were interrupted because the president walked in. And so I said, ‘Let’s save it for when we get up on the dais.’”
As he started mingling with the Trumps, Leavitt and CBS anchor Weijia Jiang, Pearlman started “piecing together” the name of Karoline’s baby.
“I was coming to say hello to the president and to the first lady, and I was guessing letter by letter how many letters were in (Leavitt’s unborn child’s) name,” he recalled speaking to Karl. “Then right at the moment where you see it happen, I wrote down the name and I said, ‘How did I do?’ And I turned around and that’s when you see the first lady go, ‘Oh! Is that the name?’”
ABC News' @jonkarl speaks with White House Correspondents' Dinner headliner Oz Pearlman on his experience mere feet from the president during the shooting incident Saturday night. https://t.co/nQ4ZbYz5M9 pic.twitter.com/Lhn6m8YSpM
— ABC News (@ABC) April 26, 2026
Before Leavitt could confirm if the name he had written down, which was Vivian, was correct, the room inside the Washington Hilton exploded into chaos.
“Everybody was like, ‘Whoa!’” he recounted to Variety . “But at that exact same moment, we saw dozens of people with guns — a SWAT team and military — running into the centre of the room as people started getting under their tables.”
“It (was) kind of a pivotal moment in the trick where you’re just about to do the reveal … and we hear commotion,” Pearlman added in a separate interview with CNN’s State of the Union.
Mentalist Oz Pearlman is recounting the heart-stopping moments from inside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, describing the moments after chaos erupted, and how close he was to the President when it all went down.
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 26, 2026
🎥 CNN pic.twitter.com/a3k4szBNr8
Pearlman didn’t hear gunshots, but feared there could be a bomb inside the venue.
While he was on the ground, Pearlman revealed he locked eyes with Trump.
“We’re looking eye to eye from a foot apart, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, are we about to die?'” he remembered thinking in his conversation with Variety .
Pearlman said he wasn’t sure if Trump “was scared.”
“I have to assume there was fear in all of us, because it was a very serious situation,” he said.
‘Why didn’t you see that coming?’
Despite being shaken up, Pearlman and his wife, Elisa, still went to an after-party.
“It was bittersweet,” Pearlman told Variety, looking back on the night. “The sweet thing is nothing really happened. Nobody was hurt. But the bitter part is that it was going to be an amazing night. I had some really unique and exceptional things planned that would have hit strong. I’m sad to not have had that moment, but given the circumstances, that’s a very secondary concern.”
He also mused about how the Internet would have reacted if he had died in the attack.
“If I had been killed, people would forever have said, ‘Why didn’t you see that coming?’” Pearlman said. “Like, that’s the worst way for a mentalist to die, because the memes are just too good.”
In a follow-up Instagram post , Pearlman thanked fans for their concern, writing, “Thank you all for checking on me. I am OK and thank God everyone is alright! Was in the middle of performing for the President and First Lady when I looked up to see a commotion, thought it was a bomb about to go off or shots fired.”
Pearlman said he and everyone else around him “hit the deck fast” and said he was the most frightening thing he’s had to face.
“Secret Service acted decisively and professionally to protect us all. We laid on the ground, I was a couple feet away from President Trump, eyes locked with one another,” he continued. “It was likely the scariest moment of my life and will never forget it.”
According to the Associated Press , Cole Allen, the California man arrested in the shooting at the dinner, is a tutor and amateur video game developer opposed to Trump’s policies.
Allen was apprehended Saturday night after he tried to push past a security checkpoint with two firearms and knives.
In a message sent to family members before he launched his attack, the 31-year-old described himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin.”