A Daily Beast reporter slept in the Hilton room next door to Cole Allen — Room 10235 — the night before the WHCD attack

Allen's Hilton Room Was Two Doors Down From a White House Reporter. Nobody Caught It.

Daily Beast political correspondent Tara Palmeri published her account on April 26, 2026 under a headline that needed no expansion: "I Slept Next Door to the Assassin in Washington Hilton Room 10235."

The Room Number

Cole Allen booked Room 10235 on the 10th floor of the Washington Hilton in early April 2026, per Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He checked in on Friday April 24, the night before the WHCD. Inside his luggage: a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. The hotel did not screen luggage at check-in. The room was issued like any other.

The Floor

The 10th floor was, that weekend, occupied by accredited White House correspondents covering the dinner. Palmeri's account establishes that journalists were on the same floor as the man who would charge the ballroom the next night. She walked the same hallway. She used the same elevators. She slept twenty feet from the assassin's gun cache.

The Security Failure

The Daily Beast piece is part of a wider commentary cluster — Mediaite, Daily Wire, Daily Caller — describing the night's security as "a fiasco." The specific Room 10235 detail is the most cinematic piece of evidence: the would-be killer and his future targets' coverage team booked rooms next to each other.