The suspected White House correspondents’ dinner shooter was a highly educated private tutor who was reportedly not on the FBI’s radar.

While the Trump administration has sought to characterise Cole Tomas Allen, 31, as “anti-Christian”, his college classmates remember him as a “mellow” believer, former Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein has revealed.

On Sunday, Trump told FOX News that Allen “had a lot of hatred in his heart for a while,” calling him “strongly anti-Christian”.

But in a manifesto shared with family members before the attack – published in full by the New York Post – Allen dubs himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and clearly identifies himself as a Christian.

The manifesto uses his religious faith and his animosity towards President Trump – whom he refers to as “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor,” but does not name directly – to justify his actions.

“Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” he wrote.

Allen graduated in 2017 from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with a degree in mechanical engineering, according to his resume.

A keen video game designer, Allen was also active in the Christian Fellowship during his time at Caltech.

“If I didn’t see his face eating carpet, I would’ve never believed it,” a former classmate told Klippenstein, who reported the story on Substack.

He then went on to work at IJK Controls LLC, a California firm that specialises in the stabilisation and tracking of cameras, sensors and antennas – including those used in drones, satellites and military targeting systems.

At the time of the attack, Allen was working as a private tutor at a firm providing admissions counselling and test preparation services to aspiring college students, AP reported.

Tom Midlane is a freelance journalist.

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