MAGA-friendly mentalist Oz Pearlman has told how he came face-to-face with Donald Trump as they both ducked for cover during an assassination attempt on the president.
Pearlman, 43, was the guest host at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton. The event broke up in chaos before Trump’s speech after a gunman evaded security and opened fire outside the ballroom.
At the time of the gunfire, Pearlman was mid-trick, using his magic powers to try to guess the name of heavily pregnant White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s unborn child.
“I was meeting the president, I was meeting the first lady, and warming them up because I was going to be performing a show later,” he told Anderson Cooper on CNN on Monday.
Pearlman and Leavitt were at the same table as Donald and Melania Trump, meaning he was caught up in the Secret Service operation to secure the president.
The magician told Cooper that just as he was revealing the name on the card, and the sound of gunshots rang out, the “normal wow and gasp” at his magic trick turned to “sheer panic.”
“I didn’t see the whole crowd, because I was really focused on the people with guns, but people are getting down,” Pearlman said, admitting he initially thought it wasn’t a shooting, but rather that a bomb may have been planted in the room.
After dropping to all fours and getting under the table, Pearlman told CNN he then saw President Trump “coming in the direction of me, starting to get down, and then two Secret Service people behind him, getting on top of him and bringing him down very forcefully and very quickly.“
Calling it one of the “most surreal” moments of his life, the magician remembers being face-to-face with the 79-year-old in the mayhem.
“We‘re both looking at each other... I believe it was about two seconds. It felt much longer in the moment. We did not communicate. There was no speaking. I never really looked at the Secret Service agents. I just couldn‘t believe that this is really happening,” Pearlman explained.
Anderson noted he had a unique vantage point because “nobody has probably ever seen a president in that scenario that closely” and asked the magician what Trump’s “face was like” in the moment.
“So, I can‘t judge it. I don‘t want to give any false ideas of what occurred because I was so panicked... We didn‘t communicate,” he said.
Pearlman did dispel claims that the president fell over during the chaos, saying, “People told me he had tripped, it did not look like that to me.”
He added of Trump during the aftermath of the shooting, “We stayed down. It was very distinct that he did not stay down and army-crawl out the way we did. I was very scared, I’m like, ‘I’m not standing up. I don’t know if there’s anybody shooting.’ I was just like, ‘I gotta get out of here.’”
The magician, who replaced the usual comedian at the press event, said he would jump at the chance to return when the dinner is rescheduled.
“I felt very honored to be a part of this event,” Pearlman said. “It has a storied history. I believe greatly in the First Amendment, the freedom of the press, and to be out there with all the journalists... I would definitely come back.”
After his appearance on CNN, Pearlman was a no-show for a planned guest spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday evening.
He was replaced by podcaster Jon Lovett, who posted on X of his surprise appearance, “For my first trick, I’m replacing the mentalist on @JimmyKimmelLive tonight Ta da.”
Pearlman’s sudden exit follows the president and Melania Trump calling for Kimmel to be fired over a “hateful” monologue.
Last Thursday, Kimmel parodied the dinner days before Saturday’s shooting. “Our first lady Melania is here. So beautiful, Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” the late-night host said, narrating a fake event.
The first lady called Kimmel a “coward” hiding behind ABC in a fiery X post.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania wrote.
But Kimmel refused to apologize to either aggrieved Trump in the show Pearlman was not a part of.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said. “And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
Kimmel addressed Melania’s post and said, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
