A small army of Secret Service agents are mandated by Congress to keep the American president, his family, cabinet members and various dignitaries safe. The American president is arguably the world’s most protected person, but the job is proving to be tricky. “I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that is more dangerous,” Trump said of his job, just hours after the incident.
In the summer of 2024 there was the dramatic assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in which a bullet grazed his ear. Barely two months later, Trump was apparently again the target of a would-be assassin as he played a round on his Florida golf course. On Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at Washington Hilton hotel gunshots rang out and Trump and other dignitaries were hustled from the room.
Trump’s security is once again under scrutiny.
So, just how did a gunman get so close to this highly protected man?
Details are just slowly emerging. The suspected shooter is 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen. It is still unclear as to motive or even whether Trump was the actual target. In attendance were a plethora, of diplomats, politicians and media.
THE BBC reported that their Chief North America correspondent Gary O’Donoghue, the BBC’s who was at the dinner said while roads were closed around the Washington Hilton for hours, security at the venue itself “wasn’t particularly heavy”.
“The man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away,” he wrote.
It was also reported that, “Tickets to the dinner only had table numbers written on them and not the actual names of guests. Identification was not checked at any point for those entering the hotel.
“Guests making their way to the dinner went down escalators from the main lobbies, before going through a security checkpoint in an area one level above the ballroom entrances. When the dinner begins, they go down a flight of stairs to enter.”
CCTV posted on social media by Trump showed the suspect charge through one of these checkpoints, before Secret Service agents open fire. Authorities have said he was in possession of a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives and he exchanged gunfire with officers.
Trump later posted a photo of a shirtless man on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back with Secret Service officers standing around him.
Police said Cole Tomas Allen was a guest at the Washington Hilton, which continued to operate as a hotel despite having some of the most powerful people in the world in the same building.
Allen told law enforcement following his arrest that he wanted to shoot Trump administration officials, CBS News reported on Sunday, citing two sources.
Trump later said the Hilton was “not a particularly secure building”, typically adding that the incident showed the importance of the new White House ballroom that is under construction but subject to litigation.
“It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure. It’s drone proof. It’s bullet-proof glass. We need the ballroom,” he said.
Why that would protect anyone from a would-be assassin already inside the building was not addressed.
Experts in law enforcement and presidential security have said the fact the gunman never made it into the ballroom itself suggested that the security arrangements worked.
The shooting is the latest chapter of political violence in America, which data suggests is increasing.
In 2023, US Capitol Police investigated over 8,000 threats, a 50% increase compared to 2018.
Presidential attacks
Asked about the frequency of attacks at his events, Trump said, “Well, you know, I’ve studied assassinations,” Trump said. “And I must tell you the most impactful people, the people that do the most – you take a look at Abraham Lincoln… the people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after.”
“I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot,” Trump added. “We’ve changed this country, and there are a lot of people that are not happy about that. So ,I think that’s the answer.
“Honoured by that.” Well, whatever…
Four sitting U.S. presidents have been killed:
Abraham Lincoln (1865),
James A. Garfield (1881),
William McKinley (1901), and
John F. Kennedy (1963).
Ronald Reagan (1981) is the only sitting president to have been wounded in an assassination attempt and survive. Theodore Roosevelt (1912) was wounded in an assassination attempt as a former president.
In September 1975, President Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts within just 17 days, both occurring in California and both carried out by women.
Donald Trump (2024) was wounded in an assassination attempt in between his two terms.
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