Trump evacuated after gunman fires at WHCA dinner security perimeter

President Donald Trump ruefully admits he’s choosing the “most dangerous profession in the world,” but surviving an unprecedented third assassination attempt — including one where he was shot in the ear — only strengthens his resolve.

“I’ve studied assassinations, and I have to tell you that the people who have the most impact, the people who do the most” are the targets, Trump said at a press briefing Saturday evening at the White House after a suspected assassin was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service at the Washington Hilton, the notorious site of the 1981 shooting of former President Ronald Reagan.

“You look at the people, Abraham Lincoln, I mean, you go through the people who have been through this where they found them, but the people who are doing the most, the people who are having the biggest impact, those are the ones they’re looking for.

“They don’t go after people who don’t do much because they like it.”

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President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks in the James Brady Press Room at the White House after an unspecified threat at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (José Luis Magana/AP)

In Trump’s case, three foiled assassinations are part of his presidential tradition, facing a series of shootings, plots and major security breaches like never before.

Trump cautiously admitted, “I hate to say I’m honored by it,” but noted that “big names” and big players are the targets.

Saturday night’s chaos at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington added a new entry to a list already defined by gunfire in Butler, Pennsylvania (July 13, 2024), an armed suspect at his Florida golf club (September 15, 2024), and the Secret Service’s discovery of a sniper’s nest within sight of where Air Force One lands at Palm Beach International in Florida.

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Trump praised unity at the WHCA dinner, in a room with some of his fiercest media critics, urging Americans to unite in a divided political time.

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“In light of tonight’s events, I have asked all Americans to reaffirm their commitment wholeheartedly and resolve our differences peacefully,” Trump said. “We must resolve our differences.”

“I will say that there were Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives – maybe those words are interchangeable, but maybe they’re not – but yet everyone in that room, a big crowd, a record crowd. There was a record group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together,” Trump continued.

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“I looked at it and I was very, very impressed by it.“

Law enforcement officers block a street at an address linked to Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in Torrance, California, April 25, 2026. (Ethan Swope/AP)

Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed from the Washington Hilton after shots were fired outside the ballroom, where the president was scheduled to speak.

Authorities said a police officer was shot but protected by a ballistic vest, and the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, of California, was taken into custody before entering the room.

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The three men at the center of the most serious known threats are now Thomas Matthew Crooks (Butler suspect, deceased), Ryan Wesley Routh (Palm Beach suspect, sentenced to life) and now Allen (arrested and charged Saturday evening).

Crooks, 20, opened fire during the July 13, 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The FBI identified Crooks as the shooter after he hit Trump in the right ear and killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore before being shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Routh, 59, was sentenced to life in prison for his attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach in September 2024. Prosecutors said Secret Service agents spotted him with a rifle near the course while Trump was playing, prompting an agent to open fire before Routh could shoot.

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Allen, identified in Saturday night’s incident in Washington, is the most recent name on that list. Authorities announced charges related to firearms and assault.

At a press conference Saturday evening, law enforcement said Allen was armed with multiple weapons and allegedly fired during a stampede toward a security perimeter near the diner, striking a Secret Service agent in his body armor before being “tackled” to the ground without receiving a Secret Service bullet.

“An officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he had a very good bulletproof vest on,” Trump told reporters, many of whom were still in tuxedos, after also leaving the canceled WHCA dinner. “He was shot at very close range with a very powerful weapon, and the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer and he is doing very well. He is in very good shape. He is very moral and we told him we love and respect him.”

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Taken together, these three cases underscore the extent to which Trump’s security profile has gone from unusually tense to historically extraordinary. One attempt drew blood on a campaign trail, another resulted in a life sentence after a rifle ambush on a golf course, and the last forced a presidential evacuation from one of Washington’s highest-profile public events.

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Trump signaled Saturday evening that he had no plans to withdraw from public appearances despite repeated threats.

“The response time has been truly incredible and we are going to reschedule,” Trump said. “We’re going to do it again.”

“We will not let anyone take control of our society,” he added. “We’re not going to cancel things because we can’t do this. We wanted to stay in tonight.”

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Other foiled plots and security alerts

Beyond the three highest-profile cases, Trump has faced a broader set of violent threats and close encounters dating back to his first campaign.

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In June 2016, Michael Steven Sandford, a British national, allegedly tried to grab a police officer’s gun at a Trump rally in Las Vegas and later told investigators he intended to kill Trump, according to court records and contemporary news reports.

In March 2016, Thomas Dimassimo rushed to the stage at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, before Secret Service agents attacked him.

And in November 2016, Trump was briefly rushed off stage in Reno, Nevada, after someone in the crowd shouted “gun,” although authorities later said the man arrested was not armed.

President Ronald Reagan greets spectators moments before an attempted assassination of John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981, outside the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. (The White House/Getty Images)

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Public reporting also documented subsequent threats that were not carried out in Trump’s immediate location, including a ricin letter case from 2020; a 2024 murder-for-hire plot linked to Iran; a 2017 incident in North Dakota in which a man stole a forklift and drove it toward the presidential motorcade; and a February 2026 confrontation at Mar-a-Lago in which the Secret Service shot and killed a 21-year-old armed with a shotgun and a gas canister while Trump was in Washington.