The president of the United States is a powerful, high-profile target with enemies across a dangerous world.
The attempts to kill presidents have come not only at the point of a gun, but from poisoned packages, mail bombs, roadside explosives — even suicide attacks from the air.
Four of the 45 men to serve in the role of chief executive were assassinated in office.
There have been dozens of other known attempts to take the life of an American president – a position widely recognized since World War II as the leader of the free world.
In the wake of the shocking events of Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, here is a look at 14 of the most bizarre attempts to assassinate our presidents – as well as the four times American presidents were murdered in office. The information is from the Library of Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a variety of news and historical sources.
Assassination attempts on US presidents
2024: Donald Trump
A rooftop gunman fired several rounds at the former president during an event shown live on national television as Trump stumped on the campaign trail on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
One of the rounds grazed his ear, just inches from what could have been a fatal shot to the head. The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was part of Trump’s ongoing bid to regain the White House.
The suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead, reportedly by Secret Service snipers. Investigations are ongoing.
2016: Donald Trump
Michael Steven Sandford, a British citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa, attempted to seize the firearm of a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer at a June 18 Trump campaign rally. The man had taken shooting lessons at a gun range the day before.
Sandford was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison after pleading guilty to several charges. Among those charges: illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
2013: Barack Obama
James Everett Dutschke sent letters he’d dusted with poison Ricin to then-President Obama “in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival,” according to a Politico report.
Blood seeped from Roosevelt’s body and soaked his white shirt with a large crimson stain as he spoke.
1864: Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was riding horseback in August from the White House to a retreat cottage three miles away when “a would-be assassin fired from near the road, shooting the stovepipe [hat] off Lincoln’s head,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Soldiers later found the hat on the road with a bullet hole through the crown.
1835: Andrew Jackson
Old Hickory had a near-death experience when gunman Richard Lawrence pulled a gun on the president in the Capitol Rotunda in Jan. 1835.
Lawrence aimed a derringer single-shot pistol Jackson’s heart from inches away and pulled the trigger. The cap exploded, noise and smoke filled the air, according to an official Senate.gov account — but the powder failed to ignite.
The assassinations of 4 US presidents
1963: John F. Kennedy
The president was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963, an event that continues to haunt the nation. In the eyes of millions of Americans, the crime remains unsolved.
The lone suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot dead himself on live television two days later. His death helped fuel the 60 years of questions, controversy and conspiracy theories that followed.
1901: William McKinley
Leon Czolgosz shot the president twice in the stomach from point-blank range in Buffalo, New York, on Sept. 6, 1901. He died of the wounds eight days later.
“Chief executive victim of most cowardly anarchist,” the San Francisco Call proclaimed in a boldfaced front-page headline. Witnesses beat Czolgosz nearly to death. He was convicted and executed just a month later.
Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the president following McKinley’s assassination.
1881: James Garfield
President Garfield was planning to board a train in Washington D.C. on July 2, less than four months after taking office, when he was shot twice by disgruntled campaign supporter Charles Guiteau.
The writer and lawyer said he was angered after being passed over for the post of ambassador to France.
Booth, a “vigorous supporter of the southern cause,” according to Britannica, then became the subject of a frantic manhunt. He was shot dead on April 26, 1865.
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