President Donald Trump said Saturday that he views his repeated brushes with violence as a sign of his historic significance and is determined not to let the dangers affect him.
Authorities have not identified a motive or target in the shooting at the Washington Hilton, where Trump and multiple Cabinet officials were attending the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday evening. But interim D.C. police chief Jeffery Carroll said during a news conference that the suspect was running through a security checkpoint in the direction of the ballroom, where Trump was seated at the head table.
The latest instance of a gunman in his vicinity — after the two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign — led the president to contemplate why such things keep happening to him.
“I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most … they’re the ones that they go after,” Trump told reporters at the White House soon after a shooting suspect was apprehended. “And I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”
Trump mentioned Abraham Lincoln, but not Ronald Reagan, who was injured in a shooting outside the same hotel in 1981.
Trump said he tries not to dwell on the occupational hazards of being president. His ear was wounded by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024. That September, a man set up a sniper’s nest outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was spotted by Secret Service agents; he was sentenced in February to life in prison.
“It’s a dangerous profession, but I don’t view it that way,” he said. “I’m here to do a job. As part of the job — it is a dangerous — I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that’s more dangerous. But I love the country, and I’m very proud.”
Trump joked that he might not have run had he known about the risk. But in all seriousness, he made clear he did not want the risk of violence to alter his or anyone else’s life. He was determined on Saturday to go on with the dinner, and when law enforcement said the event couldn’t continue because the venue had to be cleared, Trump said he wanted to reschedule within 30 days.
“We very much wanted to continue it, because I don’t like to let these sick people, these thugs, these horrible, horrible people change the fabric of our life,” Trump said.
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