Featured Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Social Media, Celebrity, Viral
Kiesha Dosanjh
Topics: Donald Trump, Social Media, Celebrity, Viral
Ben Stiller has been slammed after a poorly timed comment on X shortly after the White House correspondents’ dinner was halted due to a gunman.
On Saturday, April 25, President Donald Trump attended his first White House Correspondents’ dinner since being in office. However, the evening was canceled after five gunshots echoed throughout the ballroom at the Hilton hotel, causing Trump and senior cabinet officials to be swiftly evacuated.
Life-long New York Knicks fan Stiller, who was not in attendance at the correspondents’ dinner, had been live tweeting about the Knicks’ game against the Atlanta Hawks at the time.
The Knicks took home the victory, beating the Hawks with a score of 114-98, with the Happy Gilmore actor tweeting at the time of the win: “Got it done.”
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Despite Stiller referring to the Knicks win, the tweet was posted around 20 minutes after Trump and guests had been rushed out the venue.
The overlap in events left many confused on X, with some pointing out the ‘poorly timed’ posting of the sporting celebration.
The tweet, which was posted on Saturday night, has since racked up over 3000 replies from users on the social media platform.
One wrote: “The timing of this tweet was pretty insane,” while another said: “Ben - I REALLY hope this isn’t in reference to the attempted assassination on President Trump.”
Others jumped to the star’s defence, with one writing: “Poor guy is just trying to post about Knicks basketball and can’t catch a break.”
Another penned: “Why would someone think saying ‘got it done’ was about a failed assassination attempt and not about the Knicks winning in Atlanta?”
A third wrote: “Complete idiots in the comments not realizing he’s simply celebrating a Knicks playoff win.”
President Trump spoke out about the events of the shooting shortly after the commotion, as he said: “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a little bit. The fact we were sitting right next to each other, and the First Lady on my right, and I heard a noise and thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray going down - I’ve heard that many times - it was a pretty loud noise, and it was from pretty far away.
“He hadn’t breached the area at all before we got him. It was quite far away - but it was a gun. Some people really understood that pretty quickly, others didn’t. I was watching to see what was happening, but probably should’ve gone down even faster.”
The suspected gunman, Cole Tomas Allan, is scheduled to be arraigned before a federal court on Monday (April 27).
UNILAD has contacted Ben Stiller’s reps for comment.