WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire with a shotgun on security personnel, officials said.
The armed man fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told Reuters. About two hours after the incident, Trump told reporters at the White House that the officer was saved by his bulletproof vest and is in “good shape.” The suspect, whom Trump described as a “sick person,” has been arrested.
All federal officials at the dinner, including Trump, were safe.
Trump says shooter “looked pretty evil”
“A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service,” Trump said at a White House press conference after the incident.
Closed-circuit TV footage released by Trump on Truth Social showed someone running rapidly through a security checkpoint, briefly catching security personnel off guard before they quickly drew their weapons.
“You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was very far away from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said after the gala dinner was cancelled.
Officials believe the attacker is a “lone wolf” who acted alone, Trump said, adding: “He was a guy who looked pretty evil when he was down.”
Trump also said federal agents were raiding the California home of the suspected shooter.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the service was investigating a shooting near the main screening area at the entrance to the event.
After the sound of gunfire, dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people began screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled toward the front of the dining hall.
Security agents pushed cabinet officials to the ground, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Other security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage and evacuated Trump and the first lady. Some agents took positions on the stage, pointing rifles into the ballroom. Cabinet members were then evacuated one by one.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a major fixture of Washington’s social calendar, was also attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and senior administration officials. The event is held in the basement ballroom of the Hilton hotel.
Shooting follows 2024 assassination attempts
Trump and the first lady bent down behind the dais before being rushed out by Secret Service officers. Trump remained backstage for about an hour, a source told Reuters. “We are staying,” he was overheard saying, the source added.
Trump later posted on social media that he hoped the dinner, his first attended as president, could be rescheduled within 30 days.
He was previously the target of two assassination attempts in 2024 while campaigning for re-election after leaving the White House in 2021.
The most serious attempt occurred at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when Trump was shot and wounded in the upper ear by a 20-year-old gunman. The attacker was killed by security forces.
Just over two months later, Secret Service agents discovered a man armed with a gun hiding in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. The incident was treated as an assassination attempt, and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.
The Washington Hilton, where Saturday’s dinner was held, was also the site of an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981, when he was shot and wounded outside the hotel by a would-be assassin.