UnitedHealthcare terminated a social media manager after she posted a TikTok video lamenting that a gunman at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner failed to kill President Trump, a reaction the company said was "in no way consistent with our mission and values."
Alison King, identified as a social media manager for UnitedHealthcare based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, appeared in the video reacting to Saturday night's shooting at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Her words were blunt.
In the clip, King said her first reaction to hearing the news was disbelief, followed by something far worse. She described her thought process on camera:
"We're cooked as a country when my first reaction to hearing the news about Trump's attempt was, 'It was probably fake.' Like, immediately I was like, 'Oh, that wasn't real, probably fake.' And the second was 'Aww, they missed? So happy they missed.' Yeah, that's sad. That's when you know we're cooked."
By Tuesday, she was out of a job. A UnitedHealthcare spokesperson delivered the company's response to Fox News Digital:
"Violence is never acceptable and any comments that suggest otherwise are in no way consistent with our mission and values. The person who made comments online about Saturday night's incident at a Washington event where President Trump and many other political leaders were gathered is no longer employed by the company."
King reportedly deleted her LinkedIn account after the video circulated online. She declined to comment when Fox News Digital reached out.
The incident King found so amusing was an act of political violence. Authorities said Cole Tomas Allen opened fire at the Washington Hilton Hotel during the dinner Saturday night, the first time President Trump attended the event as president. Allen was arrested that same night. He now faces life in prison.
Fox News Digital reported that law enforcement sources said Allen wanted to target Trump administration officials. The dinner had gathered many political leaders in one room, making it exactly the kind of high-profile event that security experts have long warned about.
King's video surfaced on social media through the X account Leftism (@LeftismForU), which posted on April 27, 2026, identifying her by name, location, and employer. The post also listed affiliations with MKTG, SkolMarketing, and Optum, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary.
UnitedHealthcare has more reason than most corporations to take threats seriously. On December 4, 2024, its CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death in Midtown Manhattan. A masked gunman fired repeatedly at Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel at about 6:45 a.m. as the executive arrived for an investor conference. The attacker fled eastbound off 6th Avenue. Police said the shooting was targeted.
Thompson, 50, had no personal security detail that morning. He was walking alone to the conference when he was killed. Security experts later noted that investor meetings are considered high-risk because locations and speaker details are publicized in advance, giving attackers opportunities to plan. After the shooting, UnitedHealth Group removed photos, names, and biographies of top executives from its website.
Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter in Thompson's killing, is scheduled to return to state court on May 18 for a ruling on motions to suppress evidence and statements from his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
What happened after Thompson's murder in 2024 was a preview of the culture King's video represents. Some commentators and social media users appeared to justify or celebrate the killing of an insurance executive. The reaction was so widespread that it drew condemnation from both sides of the political aisle.
Sen. John Fetterman, not exactly a conservative stalwart, was among those who pushed back. As Newsmax reported, Fetterman called Thompson "an innocent man and father of two" and described the online reactions as indefensible:
"The public execution of an innocent man and father of two is indefensible, not 'inevitable.'"
Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci captured the scale of the problem at the time: "I can't think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated."
That was December 2024. By April 2026, the same impulse had migrated from anonymous Twitter accounts to a named employee of the very company whose CEO had been gunned down, recorded on camera, posted to TikTok, and apparently uploaded without a second thought about what it meant or who might see it.
UnitedHealthcare moved quickly. The company's statement was unambiguous. King is gone. That part of the story worked the way it should.
But the deeper question is what kind of environment produces an employee who watches news of a shooting at an event attended by the president and dozens of political leaders, and reaches for her phone to record her disappointment that the gunman missed. Not anonymously. Not in a private text. On camera, for public consumption, as though the sentiment were unremarkable.
King's own words suggest she understood, at least dimly, that her reaction was a problem. She called it "sad" and said it showed "we're cooked." But she posted the video anyway. The self-awareness stopped short of self-restraint.
This is the second time in less than two years that UnitedHealthcare has been forced to confront the consequences of a culture that treats violence against people in positions of authority, corporate or political, as something between entertainment and justice. Thompson's murder drew open applause in certain corners of the internet. Now a company employee publicly wished the same fate on the sitting president.
The pattern is not subtle. When political violence is met with memes instead of horror, when a shooting at a formal dinner prompts "aww, they missed" from a corporate professional on social media, something has corroded well past the point of partisan disagreement.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik said after the Thompson killing that the shooting appeared likely to be a murder-for-hire. Security consultant Fred Burton told reporters he spent the day fielding calls from organizations asking, "Am I doing enough?" The answer, clearly, extends beyond physical security.
Several details remain unclear. UnitedHealthcare said King "is no longer employed by the company" but did not specify whether she was formally terminated or separated in some other way. The exact charges Cole Tomas Allen faces have not been detailed. And King's TikTok handle and the full reach of the video before it was flagged remain unknown.
What is known is enough. A woman employed by a health insurance company whose own CEO was murdered watched news of a shooting at the president and recorded herself wishing the shooter had better aim. The company fired her. The internet identified her. And the video speaks for itself.
When the reflex to celebrate political violence becomes so casual that people film it and post it under their real names, the problem is no longer at the fringe. It is sitting in a cubicle in the Minneapolis suburbs, working in social media, and wondering why anyone is upset.
