It was the third time a gunman had threatened US president Donald Trump in three years. During the 2024 campaign, he survived two attempts, including a bullet grazing his ear. On Saturday, a gunman rushing security at the renowned Washington correspondents’ dinner was brought down by Secret Service agents, in the very hotel where a failed attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan was made in 1981.
The rationale of the 31-year-old, named as Cole Tomas Allen is unclear, although Trump described him as probably a “lone wolf” and there is no evidence of a wider plot. While stopped by security, there will be questions about how the gunman got so close to the room where Trump and senior figures in his administration were attending.
Acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the preliminary evidence was that Allen was, indeed, targeting Trump and his senior officials . He is to be charged, Blanche said, with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer. Other charges may follow.
As many world leaders said in response, such political violence has no place in a democracy. There is a long history of violent individuals threatening US presidents. However, the regularity of the threats against Trump reflect a worrying trend in an increasingly divisive political environment. Politicians in both the major parties in the US have been subjected to violent and sometimes fatal attacks over the past few years.
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The backdrop is a toxic political environment – as Taoiseach Micheál Martin pointed out, the language of political debate is important and in the US, led by Trump and his Maga supporters, it has become increasingly aggressive. And gun control – or the lack of it – in the US is also part of the picture.
In typical fashion, Trump said that the repeated attempts on his life were evidence of the extent of his impact as a politician.
And he linked the events of Saturday night with what is happening in the Gulf, writing on social media: “It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran.”
Earlier in the day he had ordered special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to cancel a trip to talks in Islamabad after Iran’s delegation led by foreign minister Abbas Araghchi returned home. Iran says it will not negotiate while the US maintains a blockade of its ports.
The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, raising the prospect of a prolonged, lower-level war of attrition, with a volatile stand-off at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and severe implications for the global economy.
Talk is the only way forward. But whether Trump can find a way out of the mess he has created in the Middle East remains uncertain.
