Washington, D.C., was rocked by a security breach on September 9, 2025, when President Donald Trump’s unannounced dinner at Joe’s Seafood turned into a public spectacle.
On that date, Trump dined with Vice President JD Vance and several cabinet members to highlight the success of National Guard deployments in making D.C. streets safer, only to be confronted by Code Pink protesters chanting slogans like “Free DC! Free Palestine!” near his table, prompting White House staffers to refer former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the Secret Service over suspicions she leaked the plans.
The incident, coming just a year after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt, has raised serious concerns about his security and deepened tensions with Greene, once a close ally but now a vocal critic who resigned from Congress on January 5, 2026.
The confrontation at Joe’s Seafood didn’t just embarrass the president; it sent shockwaves through his team, who spent weeks investigating how Code Pink knew about the tightly guarded dinner plans, according to the Daily Caller.
White House officials, while lacking direct evidence, pointed to Greene’s repeated calls to staffers that day to confirm Trump’s presence at the restaurant, a detail some found suspicious since she didn’t even show up.
Trump himself didn’t mince words, declaring, “They should be put in jail,” regarding the protesters, while his team met with Secret Service leaders to reassess security protocols.
Adding fuel to the fire, Greene reportedly recommended Joe’s Seafood as the dinner spot, according to two sources on Trump’s team, raising eyebrows about her intentions.
Her friendly relationship with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, cemented by shared opposition to U.S. military aid for Ukraine and Israel, has also come under scrutiny, especially after a photo of them together surfaced on X on December 10, 2025, with Benjamin praising Greene as a “strong anti-war voice.”
Yet, a source familiar with the situation pushed back to the Daily Caller, insisting, “Marjorie does not communicate with Medea Benjamin,” and suggesting the White House or restaurant staff could just as easily have tipped off the protesters.
Code Pink’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, highlighted in a 2023 House Committee report linking the group to Neville Roy Singham, a figure tied to Beijing’s media efforts, only deepen the intrigue surrounding this incident.
The report claimed Singham works closely with Chinese government entities, a connection that makes the protesters’ precise knowledge of Trump’s schedule even more unsettling to those concerned about foreign interference.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna echoed these worries, demanding an investigation into how Code Pink accessed the unannounced itinerary, as noted in her post on September 10, 2025.
Greene, for her part, has fiercely denied any wrongdoing, taking to X on January 9, 2026, to call the accusations a “dangerous LIE” orchestrated by White House staff upset with her for speaking out on other issues.
While it’s unclear if the Secret Service is actively investigating her, the fallout from this episode marks a breaking point in her already strained relationship with Trump’s inner circle, leaving many to wonder who truly breached the president’s security—and why.
