Targeting Senior Leaders in Washington and Tehran

Austin Bay
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:46:30 -0700
Opinion

The Saturday, April 25, White House Correspondents' Dinner presented an American enemy — presidential assassin or enemy state — with a windfall target.

Target: The U.S. president, vice president, secretary of war, secretary of state, FBI director, speaker of the House and another three-score senior administration and congressional leaders crammed elbow to elbow in a Washington Hilton ballroom.

Bullseye: The president, first lady, VP and other distinguished guests sat at a raised and very exposed table on the stage — one sweep of a 9-millimeter submachine gun.
Updated: Wed Apr 29, 2026

The Saturday, April 25, White House Correspondents' Dinner presented an American enemy — presidential assassin or enemy state — with a windfall target.

Target: The U.S. president, vice president, secretary of war, secretary of state, FBI director, speaker of the House and another three-score senior administration and congressional leaders crammed elbow to elbow in a Washington Hilton ballroom.

Bullseye: The president, first lady, VP and other distinguished guests sat at a raised and very exposed table on the stage — one sweep of a 9-millimeter submachine gun.

Sunday morning, a reporter noted a hotel parking lot was located below the dining room. She had parked there and no one checked her car.

High explosive car bomb detonation, anyone? Blowing a hole in the floor?

For that matter, an ayatollah with a suicide drone with a 1-ton bomb aboard crashes into the hotel. You can target the Hilton using Google Earth.

Yes, D.C. has an exclusive air defense zone, so it's unlikely a drone, plane or missile gets through.

However, a radicalized leftist assassin from California ran through a Secret Service checkpoint inside the hotel. He carried a shotgun and semi-automatic pistol.

The Secret Service stopped him. But think. Cole Thomas Allen could have worn a suicide vest and detonated it Hamas-style, killing dozens. Allen's a Caltech engineer. Fair bet he can build a suicide vest or a poison gas grenade. Hydrogen cyanide in an explosive cylinder is a potential terror weapon.

I don't expect the War Department to deter every enemy attack — though I do expect the War Department to destroy any enemy who attacks the U.S. or even threatens an attack. I don't expect the Secret Service to detect and prevent every assassination attempt — but the Secret Service must do better than it has in the last three years. Much better.

Here's what makes the White House Correspondents' Dinner debacle so unforgiveable: Why on Earth jam so many key U.S. leaders in the same room in a building that is directly accessible to street traffic and unvetted civilians?

If the president, VP, speaker of the House, secretary of state and secretary of war were all incapacitated, who takes over and how soon? The president, VP and SecWar are the National Command Authority — individuals with the authority to go to war. Yes, the SecWar can temporarily delegate his job to a subordinate, but was that done?

Even if it was done, consider the disruption, chaos and vulnerability in the immediate hours after the attack. The U.S. government security services are highly robust, and military combatant commands (e.g., CENTCOM, INDO-PACOM) would continue to operate. Major security operations would continue. State governments would continue to operate - the benefit of being a democratic federal republic.

Unfortunately, for 12 to 24 hours, official Washington would be traumatized — giving China the perfect time to seize Taiwan. Would the new acting president risk a global war to defend Taiwan?

But our republic would survive without a power struggle.

Americans cannot allow this foolish situation to occur: 1) Never again allow so many senior leaders to hobnob in the same hotel ballroom. 2) Let's build the White House ballroom. Obviously, we need it in order to host secure state functions. It can double as a venue for large meetings.

Iran offers an insight into what happens in a decapitated dictatorship: chaos and power struggles.

On April 21, President Donald Trump described Iran's leadership as "seriously fractured." The U.S. and Israeli air and missile campaign had killed so many Iranian leaders that the U.S. was now talking with "a whole new set of people."

How many Iranian leaders have died? There are various estimates, but 70 is a plausible figure, with 50 killed in the war's first four days, with 20 slain in one key raid. On April 27, a Middle Eastern source (possibly Pakistani) told an American media outlet that the new Iranian leadership could reach "no consensus" on how to address U.S. demands.

Is Iran's leadership cadre so decimated and fractured it can't surrender?

We don't know. I don't think the mullahs know.