Oz Pearlman Reveals What Was Written on the Paper He Showed Melania Trump & Karoline Leavitt the Moment the Gunfire Started at Correspondents' Dinner
Mentalist Oz Pearlman is revealing what was written on the piece of paper he showed to Melania Trump and Karoline Leavitt in that now viral clip from moments before the shooting at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which ended up being canceled due to a gunman opening fire.
“Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, said, ‘Challenge 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. We were interrupted because the president walked in. And so I said, ‘Let’s save it for when we get up on the dais,’” he explained to ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
He eventually got on stage to say hello to the Trumps and then went ahead and started performing the trick on Leavitt.
Keep reading to find out more…
. @OzTheMentalist reveals the trick he had just performed on Karoline Leavitt when the shooting happened last night at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
He figured out the name of @PressSec ‘s soon to be born child pic.twitter.com/ejxU1E01Jg
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) April 26, 2026
“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. 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?’” You can see the clip of the moment on X.
He added that Leavitt had given him permission to share the name he wrote on the piece of paper.
“I believe the name is Vivian. So yeah, that’s what I guessed,” he said.
One famed journalist was actually only a few feet away from the gunman and revealed what he saw.