When gunshots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, roughly 2,000 guests dove under tables or scrambled for exits. Secret Service rushed President Trump, Melania, and the entire Cabinet out of the Washington Hilton ballroom. One man didn’t move. CAA senior agent Michael Glantz stayed in his seat and kept eating his spring pea and burrata salad like he had somewhere to be after dessert.
A livestream caught the whole thing — Glantz, stone-faced, calmly working through his appetizer while armed agents charged through the room yelling at people to get down. The clip went viral instantly. Suspect Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, had opened fire just outside the ballroom doors. Nobody inside was reported injured, but the chaos was real — and Glantz was unmoved.
He’s not apologizing for it. “I’m a New Yorker,” he told the New York Times. “We live with sirens and activity happening all the time. I wasn’t scared.” He told TMZ he felt completely safe with law enforcement everywhere and wanted to watch what was unfolding — adding that it’s not every day you see something like that go down. His only actual concern, he said, was his client Wolf Blitzer, who got knocked over in the commotion. And the salad.
Glantz said he’s glad people found some levity in the clip after what he called a “horrific moment.” The internet had already decided — “Salad Man” became the unlikely face of the night Trump attended his first-ever White House Correspondents’ Dinner and it ended with gunfire.