People with graduate degrees — like the man who allegedly tried to kill President Donald Trump and his cabinet members on Saturday — are more likely to support political violence, polling shows.
A 2025 report by the Skeptic Research Center found that people who hold graduate degrees are about twice as likely to believe that “violence is often necessary to create social change” compared to those who have completed lower level college degrees or opted out of higher education altogether. Cole Allen, who allegedly opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday with a stated intention to kill members of the Trump administration, reportedly obtained a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH).
Among those who hold a high school diploma or less, only 23% believe that political violence can be justified, according to the poll. About 20% of individuals who have completed some college or obtained an associates degree believe the same. (RELATED: Disturbing Number Of Young People Say Political Violence Is Justified)
The figure was slightly higher for those who hold a bachelors degree, with 26% agreeing with the statement.
However, among master’s degree graduates, a whopping 40% saying violence could be justified to enact social change.
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen reportedly wrote in a manifesto sent to family members just minutes before the shooting.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 24: A anti-Trump protester attends the “People’s State of the Union” rally at the National Mall on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
In a statement released following the shooting, CSUDH said that a student by the name of Cole Allen did graduate from the university with a master’s degree in 2025, but added it “cannot confirm if this [person] is the same suspect identified” in the assassination plot.
“CSUDH unequivocally condemns this act of violence, as well as all forms of violence,” the April 25 statement reads. “Such acts betray our values as a university and our commitment to fostering a safe environment for our campus communities. Out of respect for the active and ongoing law enforcement investigation, the California State University and CSUDH will not offer further comment at this time.”
Allen was a student at CSUDH from 2022 to 2025, according to a LinkedIn profile allegedly belonging to the suspected gunman.
Thomas Parham, the university’s president from 2018 through the end of 2025, was caught on video saying he wanted to “disrupt” and “dislodge” people from their “fragility” in order “to instigate change.” In the same conversation, Parham said that the Trump administration is an example of “residual white supremacy.”
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