WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was somewhat reflective and unusually conciliatory after facing what he saw as the third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics have made him a frequent target, but he also called for unity and bipartisanship in an increasingly violent world.
“It’s always a shock when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that will never change,” a subdued Trump told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference at the White House on Saturday night.
Not long ago, a man armed with a gun and a knife attempted to bypass the security perimeter inside a Washington hotel where the Republican president was scheduled to address the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Authorities are trying to figure out what happened and why. One suspect was taken into custody and identified as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California.
Trump said he himself was undoubtedly a target. The presidency is a “dangerous profession,” he said, noting that politics-related violence has increased in the U.S. and around the world. “No country is immune.”
Trump suggested it was a sign of how successful his presidency had been.
“I’ve studied assassinations, and I have to tell you the most influential people — the people who did the most, look at Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said. He added: “The people who make the biggest impact, they’re the ones who go after them. They don’t go after the ones who don’t do much.”
The president called on Americans to put aside their differences and unite — a break from his usual cheerful combative political tack.
“We have to resolve our differences,” Trump said. “I mean, you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives. Those words are interchangeable, maybe, but maybe they’re not. But still everybody in that room, a big crowd, a record-setting crowd, there was a group of record-setting people, and there was a huge amount of love and I was coming along, I watched a lot, I watched.
Trump says he changed course and made a ‘love speech’.
The president struck a similar tone in an interview with Fox News Channel on Sunday, calling the dinner “an evening where a lot of people came together.”
“I saw some Democrats, as we were leaving — and they were generally hostile — and last night they were waving at me. Politicians, congressmen, senators. They were waving and saying, ‘Great going’ and ‘Hello,'” Trump said. “The place was just coming together. It was great to see.”
He also said that he initially planned to give a speech to the media. “I was really going to tear it up last night,” Trump said of his initial plan.
But immediately after the event, when some thought the event would continue, Trump said he would be “very different. It will be a speech of love.”
“But I haven’t had a chance to do that,” Trump said. “Maybe I was better off, if I didn’t. I don’t know.”
There was still his old edge, especially when he spoke of the suspect: “I hated a guy like that – a sick, bad person – I hated someone who would change the course of our country.”
Echoes of what Trump said after the 2024 event
Trump has previously called for national unity, only to quickly pivot.
He told Fox News that what happened Saturday proved the need for a White House ballroom. Trump also wrote on social media that “The top secret military ballroom currently under construction at the White House has never been attacked. It can’t be done fast enough!” And he derided a legal challenge against construction that would destroy the East Wing of the White House, calling it a “ridiculous ballroom lawsuit.”
After a shooting during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024, when Trump was wounded in the ear and a supporter died, the president entered the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two days later. That same week, he gave a speech that painted a soft and deeply personal message, drawing directly from his brush with death.
“The discord and division in our society needs to be healed. We need to heal it quickly,” Trump said. “As Americans, we are bound together by a common destiny and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.”
Such calls proved to be very short-lived.
Later in the same speech, Trump returned to his trademark fight. He repeated false claims about the 2020 election that was stolen from him and claimed that Democratic President Joe Biden had caused “unimaginable” damage to the nation.
The pattern reappeared in September 2024, when Trump was playing golf at a resort club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents shot a man armed with a rifle.
Steve Wittkoff, Trump’s golf partner when the second incident occurred, described Trump’s initial response as “bold and courageous.” It wasn’t long ago that Trump was constantly talking about “radical” Democrats and “leftist lunatics.” He branded Ryan Ruth, the man serving a life sentence for trying to kill him, a “sick” man.
This time, Trump was accompanied by the first lady
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said increasingly polarizing rhetoric is partly to blame for many of the violent incidents surrounding Trump.
“There have been threats against the leadership for a very long time. Years and years and years. It’s not new,” Blanche said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There is something strange about the threats against President Trump and his cabinet that are despicable.”
Unlike the first two events, however, the latest one took place with first lady Melania Trump. The president said Sunday that his wife was “doing well.”
That followed the evening before, when Trump described the first lady as angry but “very much aware of what happened, I think.”
“I think he knew right away,” Trump said. “She was saying ‘That’s a bad sound.’
He added, “It was a very traumatic experience for him.”
There are no changes to the British monarch’s upcoming US visit
Buckingham Palace has said that King Charles III’s visit to the US will go ahead as planned despite the incident at the correspondents’ dinner on Sunday.
The announcement came after discussions between US and British officials on security concerns. The trip, an intricately planned affair, is meant to demonstrate the strength of the trans-Atlantic “special relationship”.
“Following discussions on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the day and acting on advice from the government, we can confirm that Her Majesty’s state visit will go ahead as planned,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “The King and Queen are very grateful to everyone who has stepped up to ensure this situation is maintained and look forward to tomorrow’s visit.
Charles and Queen Camilla are scheduled to begin their four-day visit on Monday, when they will have tea with the president and first lady Melania Trump.
Trump told Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing” that “we’re going to have a great time and he represents his nation like nobody else.”
___
Associated Press writer Danica Kirke in London contributed to this report.
