Ben Stiller is facing backlash over a tweet on X that many felt landed at the worst possible moment, coming soon after the White House correspondents’ dinner was disrupted by reports of gunfire.
On Saturday, April 25, President Donald Trump attended his first White House Correspondents’ dinner since taking office. The event was cut short after five gunshots were heard inside the Hilton hotel ballroom, prompting Trump and senior cabinet officials to be evacuated.
Stiller, a longtime New York Knicks supporter, wasn’t at the dinner. Instead, he was posting updates as the Knicks played the Atlanta Hawks.
After New York secured a 114-98 win over Atlanta, the Happy Gilmore actor posted: “Got it done.”
Although the message was about the basketball result, it appeared online roughly 20 minutes after Trump and other attendees had been rushed from the venue, leading to confusion about what it was referencing.
With the two incidents unfolding close together, a number of users on X said the timing made the post look “poorly timed,” even if it had nothing to do with the news coming out of Washington.
The tweet, shared late Saturday, has since drawn more than 3,000 replies.
One wrote: “The timing of this tweet was pretty insane,” while another said: “Ben – I REALLY hope this isn’t in reference to the attempted assassination on President Trump.”
Got it done
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) April 26, 2026
Others argued Stiller was being misread, with one person saying: “Poor guy is just trying to post about Knicks basketball and can’t catch a break.”
Another added: “Why would someone think saying ‘got it done’ was about a failed assassination attempt and not about the Knicks winning in Atlanta?”
A third wrote: “Complete idiots in the comments not realizing he’s simply celebrating a Knicks playoff win.”
Trump addressed the shooting soon after the disruption, saying: “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a little bit. The fact we were sitting right next to each other, and the First Lady on my right, and I heard a noise and thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray going down – I’ve heard that many times – it was a pretty loud noise, and it was from pretty far away.
“He hadn’t breached the area at all before we got him. It was quite far away – but it was a gun. Some people really understood that pretty quickly, others didn’t. I was watching to see what was happening, but probably should’ve gone down even faster.”
The suspected gunman, Cole Tomas Allan, is due to be arraigned in federal court on Monday (April 27).