US President Donald Trump has been the subject of another apparent attack as gunshots sparked chaos at the White House correspondents' dinner on Saturday, April 25. Trump and his wife Melania were evacuated from the event at the Washington Hilton after gunfire rang out, alongside Vice President JD Vance and other Cabinet members. Hundreds of guests hid under tables as Secret Service agents shouted 'shots fired'. One agent was reportedly shot at close range but saved by a bulletproof vest. The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was arrested and is expected to be formally charged on Monday. He allegedly sneaked into the venue as a guest and was armed with multiple weapons, including a shotgun, handgun and knives.
Trump was seriously injured in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally in July 2024. He was shot in the upper right ear by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle from a nearby rooftop. Crooks killed audience member Corey Comperatore and critically injured two others before being shot dead by the Secret Service. A photojournalist captured Trump with blood on his face, pumping his fist and shouting 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'. The incident is considered the Secret Service's most significant security failure since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, coincidentally at the same venue as the recent correspondents' dinner.
Two months later, in September 2024, Ryan Wesley Routh was spotted hiding in shrubbery near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, armed with an SKS rifle. He had been planning the attack for months and pointed his weapon through the fence line approximately 370 metres from Trump. A Secret Service agent fired four rounds, causing Routh to flee. He was later captured after a traffic stop that caused a car crash injuring a six-year-old girl. Routh was found guilty of attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate and sentenced to life in prison without parole plus seven years.
During Trump's first campaign in 2016, British citizen Michael Steven Sandford, 20, attempted to grab a police officer's pistol at a Las Vegas rally. Sandford claimed he wanted to kill Trump to prevent his election. He was charged with disorderly conduct and being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
