Ben Stiller picked the worst possible moment to celebrate a Knicks win. The actor’s three-word tweet — “Got it done” — landed on X roughly 20 minutes after a gunman tried to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night, and within hours, his timeline had become a battlefield.
Stiller, a lifelong superfan of the New York Knicks, had been live-tweeting the team’s first-round playoff matchup with the Atlanta Hawks for hours. His celebratory post hit the platform right as the final buzzer sounded on a 114-98 New York victory. But because it arrived in the chaotic minutes following the security scare that forced President Donald Trump’s evacuation from the Washington Hilton ballroom, plenty of users assumed Stiller was talking about something far darker.
The misreading went viral fast. The post racked up nearly 10 million views, a staggering jump for an account whose Knicks commentary typically pulls in the hundreds of thousands.
The Tweet That Set Off the Pile-On
Republican lawmakers and pro-Trump voices were among the first to react. Rep. Nancy Mace replied, “Got what done?” Richard Grenell, the former director of the Kennedy Center, weighed in with a single word: “Wtf?” From there, the replies cascaded.
“Sorry Ben; your guy missed. I really wish your side would stop trying to assassinate people you disagree with,” one user wrote, according to The Independent. Others called the timing “insane.”
Defenders quickly pushed back, pointing out that anyone glancing at Stiller’s feed would have seen a running commentary on basketball. The actor, who sat courtside for Game 2 alongside Timothée Chalamet at Madison Square Garden, treats Knicks playoff nights like a second job. Both Mace’ and Grenell’ posts were eventually flagged with Community Notes, which clarified that Stiller’s tweet referred to New York’s playoff win, “as shown by his preceding Knicks post and the game recap.”
Stiller, a Democratic Party supporter and vocal critic of the Trump administration, did not engage with the criticism. He simply kept tweeting about the Knicks. Earlier this year, the actor publicly objected to the administration’s use of clips from his 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder” in social media videos about the war in Iran.
What Actually Happened at the Hilton
The incident that triggered the confusion was serious, but contained. A gunman armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives charged through a security checkpoint at the black-tie event, prompting a swift evacuation of President Trump and the senior administration officials gathered for the dinner. The suspect never made it inside the ballroom. No one in the room was harmed, and no attendees were seriously injured.
One Secret Service agent was struck by a round in his bulletproof vest during the encounter. He has since been released from the hospital. The annual dinner was canceled for the evening, with plans to reschedule within 30 days.
Federal officials identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California man. He was arraigned on Monday in federal court on three counts, including attempted assassination of the president. According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who spoke on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” investigators believe Allen specifically targeted the administration.
Trump praised law enforcement on Truth Social. “Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely,” he wrote, adding that he had recommended the show go on but would defer to law enforcement.
The Knicks Game Stiller Was Actually Watching
Lost amid the political shouting was the basketball game that prompted the tweet in the first place. Karl-Anthony Towns delivered his first career postseason triple-double — 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — to power the Knicks past Atlanta, becoming just the fourth New York player to record a triple-double in a playoff game. Jalen Brunson chipped in 19 points.
For the Hawks, guard CJ McCollum led the way with 17 points but was scoreless from beyond the arc — a sharp drop-off from the player who had carried Atlanta to victories in Games 2 and 3. The Knicks had dropped back-to-back games before Saturday’s response, including a one-point heartbreaker, 107-106, in Game 2.
The series is now level at 2-2. Game 5 tips off Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at Madison Square Garden, with the series guaranteed to return to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday. A Game 7, if necessary, would be played in New York.
For Stiller, the lesson — fairly or not — was that on a platform where outrage moves faster than context, three words can mean whatever the angriest readers decide they mean. As of Tuesday, he was still tweeting about the Knicks.