Trump, evacuated from White House Correspondents' Dinner after gunshot noise
The US president is unharmed and one person is in custody, according to the secret service
WashingtonUS President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were evacuated unharmed from the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night after the sound of gunfire was heard. Vice President JD Vance and other administration members were also escorted by the secret service out of the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the event was taking place. According to Trump, who later posted on Truth Social, "the shooter has been apprehended."
In a parallel statement, the secret service reported that the motive for the apparent assassination attempt against Trump is being investigated and an individual is in custody. If confirmed, it would be the third, after Butler in July 2024 and the Mar-a-Lago golf course case in September of the same year. The attack on Butler marked a turning point in the MAGA movement amidst the election campaign, with the image of a bloodied Trump shouting ""fight, fight, fight,"" which was elevated to an icon by his followers. The perpetrator, Thomas Crook, was shot and killed at the scene. In the Mar-a-Lago case, Ryan Routh did not fire and has already been sentenced to life in prison.
The images of the dinner, broadcast live, show how the dinner was proceeding normally when suddenly loud noises are heard in the room. Within seconds, secret service agents appear who, amidst the background instrumental music, make Trump and all his guests duck under the table and leave. The armed security forces take possession of the box where the presidential table was, while chaos and confusion erupt throughout the dinner. Journalists in the room, bewildered by the still unidentified noise, hide under the tables.
It was the first time Trump had attended the correspondents' dinner since he became president. Neither during his first term, nor his first year of presidency after reelection, had he returned after doing so in 2015 in a personal capacity. In 2011, the then-President Barack Obama made jokes about the tycoon, who was then only a personality in New York's real estate and television world. At that time, Trump was also among the audience.
