Oz Pearlman and Elisa Rosen attend the 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Paul Morigi/Getty Images Mentalist Oz Pearlman, who hosted the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night, is revealing the magic trick he performed on Karoline Leavitt moments before shots were fired.
Pearlman was seen speaking with the White House press secretary and First Lady Melania Trump, who was sitting next to President Donald Trump, and then showing them a mysterious piece of paper. Moments later, they all ducked to the ground behind the table on stage, before Trump and Melania were rushed out of the Washington Hilton ballroom.
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ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl later caught up with the mentalist, who revealed what was written on the paper.
“Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, said, ‘Challenged me. I’m having a baby next week.’ We were talking about it because we both have children, and she goes, ‘Can you guess what I’m naming my daughter?’ And so this was happening backstage,” he said. “We were interrupted because the president walked in. And so I said, ‘Let’s save it for when we get up on the dais.'”
Pearlman later went on stage to introduce himself to Trump and Melania, and that’s when he performed the magic trick on Leavitt, with the president and first lady also watching closely.
“I was coming to say hello to the president and to the first lady, and I was guessing letter by letter how many letters were in [Leavitt’s unborn child’s] name,” he recalled. “Then right at the moment where you see it happen, I wrote down the name and I said, ‘How did I do?’ And I turned around and that’s when you see the first lady go, ‘Oh! Is that the name?'”
However, before Leavitt could confirm if Pearlman was correct, a gunman stormed into the ballroom shooting. The suspect, later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, reportedly charged through a security checkpoint and into the Washington Hilton ballroom with multiple weapons.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in a press briefing that the suspect will be charged with using a firearm and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, and that there will likely be “many more charges” to come. Trump also shared at a separate news conference at the White House that an officer was shot but saved by a bulletproof vest.
Once the scene was under control, Pearlman told Karl that Leavitt gave him permission to share the name he had written on the paper.
He said, “I believe the name is Vivian. So yeah, that’s what I guessed.”
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