“I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that is more dangerous,” President Donald Trump said of his job, just hours after he was at the centre of yet another major security incident.
While a small army of Secret Service agents make the president arguably the world’s most protected person, keeping him safe is proving to be no easy task.
First there was the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2024 in which a bullet grazed his ear. Just 64 days later, Trump was again the target of a would-be assassin as he played a round on his Florida golf course.
And now, hours after gunshots shattered the revelry of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Hilton hotel in the nation’s capital, Trump’s security is once again under scrutiny.
While the motive and precise target of the suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, remain unclear, questions are mounting over how a gunman could get so close to the president.
Among them is the level of screening at the hotel hosting some of Washington’s most high-profile politicians, diplomats and journalists.
Gary O’Donoghue, the BBC’s Chief North America correspondent who was at the dinner, said while roads were closed around the Washington Hilton for hours, security at the venue itself “wasn’t particularly heavy”.
“The man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away,” he wrote.
Tickets to the dinner only had table numbers written on them and not the actual names of guests. Identification was not checked at any point for those entering the hotel.
Guests making their way to the dinner went down escalators from the main lobbies, before going through a security checkpoint in an area one level above the ballroom entrances. When the dinner begins, they go down a flight of stairs to enter. CCTV posted on social media by Trump shows the suspect charge through one of these checkpoints, before Secret Service agents open fire. Authorities have said he was in possession of a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives. He exchanged gunfire with officers before being stopped.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer told the network he saw the suspect shoot several times using a “very very serious” weapon.
The president later posted a photo of a shirtless man on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back with Secret Service officers standing around him.
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News it appeared as though he was targeting administration officials, “likely including the president”.
Police have said Cole Tomas Allen was a guest at the Washington Hilton, which continued to operate as a hotel despite having some of the most powerful people in the world in the same building.
The hotel was closed to the public hours before the event began on Saturday, with access restricted to hotel guests and those with tickets to the dinner or the receptions held at the venue.
Once Trump was seated in the ballroom itself, there was a large security presence including heavily armed counter-assault teams who worked to secure the room moments after the shots were fired outside.
Former UK ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, who has attended correspondents’ dinners before, was critical of the security setup.
“If you were there [as a hotel guest] and you had bad intentions about breaking into this dinner, there’s just one security thing you had to get past… and then you’re in the ballroom,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Trump himself later said the Hilton was “not a particularly secure building”, adding that the incident showed the importance of the new White House ballroom that is under construction but subject to litigation.
“It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure. It’s drone proof. It’s bullet-proof glass. We need the ballroom,” he said.
The president also praised the “bravery” of the Secret Service, who took him and Vice-President JD Vance off the stage, saying they did “a great job”.
Experts in law enforcement and presidential security have said the fact the gunman never made it into the ballroom itself suggested that the security arrangements worked.
Former FBI special agent Jeff Kroeger told the BBC: “This is exactly what the Secret Service is trained do to.” When gunshots were heard they “converged on the president”, creating a “body barrier”, he said.
Former Secret Service agent Barry Donadio also told the BBC there appeared to be “no lack of agents, officers and police” at the event.
Commenting on how security might change, some experts said they expected some stronger measures for Trump events now, such as a wider perimeter.
The shooting is the latest chapter of political violence in America, which data suggests is increasing.
In 2023, US Capitol Police investigated over 8,000 threats, a 50% increase compared to 2018.
The killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah last year further exposed America’s bitter political divisions. The conservative commentator was shot while speaking at a Turning Point USA event in an act of violence that was filmed and spread across the internet.
Months earlier, Minnesota State representative Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed, while Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked with a hammer and hospitalised with a fractured skull.
Among the other targets of presidential assassination attempts was Republican President Ronald Reagan who was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr in 1981. Reagan suffered a punctured lung in the shooting, but survived.
The shooting took place outside the Washington Hilton, the same hotel that hosted Saturday’s gala.
Asked about the frequency of these attacks at his events, Trump said he had “studied assassinations” and past presidents like Abraham Lincoln were also targeted.
“They’re big names, and I hate to say I’m honoured by that, but I’ve done a lot [for the US].”
By BBC News
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