A man armed with guns and knives rushed into the lobby outside a high-profile journalists’ dinner attended by U.S. President Donald Trump and several senior U.S. officials on Saturday (April 25, 2026) night, charging towards the ballroom before Secret Service agents overpowered and detained him. Mr. Trump was not injured and was swiftly taken to a secure location.
As the incident unfolded, guests ducked under tables, while some said they heard gunshots outside the sprawling subterranean ballroom at the Washington Hilton where the event was held.
A law enforcement officer was struck in a bullet-resistant vest and is expected to recover, several sources told The Associated Press. The suspect, whom Mr. Trump described as a “sick person”, was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told the AP.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has faced threats to his life. A look at the earlier incidents:
On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential candidate, was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with a bullet grazing his ear. One bystander was killed and two others, besides Mr. Trump, were wounded, before a government sniper shot dead the attacker, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
The shooting occurred just days before Mr. Trump was to formally accept the Republican nomination for a third time. Gunfire sparked panic at the venue, and a bloodied Mr. Trump was surrounded by Secret Service personnel and rushed to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance. The incident energised Mr. Trump’s bid to return to the White House, with an image of him bloodied and pumping his fist widely circulated by his team to rally supporters.
How Crooks managed to evade security and reach the rooftop of a nearby building within firing range of Mr. Trump remains one of several unanswered questions surrounding what was described as the most serious Secret Service security lapse in decades. The motive of the assassin has not been determined as well.
On September 15, 2024, Mr. Trump was allegedly the target of what the FBI said “appears to be an attempted assassination” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Secret Service opened fire on a man who was seen pointing an AK-style rifle towards the club while Mr. Trump was on the course, according to three law enforcement officials. The suspect dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, but was later arrested in a neighbouring county. The incident came roughly two months after the Butler rally shooting in Pennsylvania, in which Mr. Trump’s ear was grazed.
In August 2023, a Chicago woman, Tracy Marie Fiorenza, 41, was arrested for sending threats to then former President Mr. Trump, including messages in which she allegedly threatened to shoot him and his youngest son, Barron Trump. According to CBS, she was charged with sending emails threatening to shoot Mr. Trump “straight in the face at any opportunity that I get”. In an earlier message, she is alleged to have written that she would “slam a bullet” into Mr. Barron Trump’s head.
Several attempts were made to harm Mr. Trump during his first term at the Oval Office, involving ricin, a toxic substance derived from castor beans. According to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin can cause severe injury or death if ingested, inhaled or injected.
In 2018, William Clyde Allen III, a former U.S. Navy sailor, admitted to sending letters containing castor beans to President Trump, FBI Director Christopher Wray, then Defence Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson.
In a separate case in 2020, Pascale Cecile Ferrier, 55, a dual citizen of Canada and France, pleaded guilty to sending a letter laced with ricin to the White House, along with similar threats to eight law enforcement officials in Texas.
On September 6, 2017, Gregory Lee Leingang allegedly stole a forklift from a North Dakota oil refinery with the intention of ramming it into Mr. Trump’s presidential limousine while he was travelling to a rally. He was intercepted before reaching the motorcade after the vehicle became stuck.
In November 2016, a teenager was arrested after attempting to wrestle a gun from a police officer at a Trump campaign rally in Las Vegas. The suspect, identified as Micheal Steven Sandford, a 19-year-old British national, later told investigators about wanting to steal the gun in order to kill Mr. Trump, the then presidential candidate. According to court filings cited by Reuters, Sandford had harboured the intent to assassinate Mr. Trump for about a year and decided to act when he “finally felt confident about trying it”. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
On November 5, 2016, Mr. Trump was briefly rushed offstage during a rally in Reno, Nevada, after someone in the crowd shouted “gun”. The U.S. Secret Service later said no weapon was found. Mr. Trump returned to the stage amid loud applause, telling supporters, “Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never be stopped, never ever be stopped.”
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