A review of Trump's past attacks: Four major shootings/assassination attempts, with Trump himself only lightly injured once

BlockBeats News, April 26. Following the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25, U.S. President Trump has publicly said he has experienced at least four assassination or attempted assassination attempts targeting him. A comprehensive overview is as follows:

The first: June 18, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada. A 20-year-old British man, Michael Sanford, tried to seize a police officer’s gun and assassinate Trump at a campaign rally, but he was subdued on the spot without firing. He was later sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison and deported.

The second: July 13, 2024, Butler, Pennsylvania. A 20-year-old man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired 8 rounds from an AR-15 rifle from a rooftop approximately 130–160 yards away from the rally venue. Trump’s right ear was grazed, one rally attendee was killed, and two others were seriously injured. The shooter was shot and killed on the spot by a Secret Service counter-sniper. This was the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan that a sitting or former U.S. president was injured in an assassination attempt. After the incident, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly C. Chtter resigned.

The third: September 15, 2024, West Palm Beach, Florida. While Trump was playing golf at his own golf club, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh had a rifle stashed in bushes about 300–500 yards away. He was discovered by Secret Service agents, who fired shots to drive him away. The gunman had not actually fired before ditching his weapon and fleeing, and he was later arrested. In September 2025, Routh was found guilty on multiple charges, including attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, by a federal jury.

The fourth: April 25, 2026, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. During Trump’s first attendance at the dinner as president, 5–8 gunshots rang out near the security checkpoint for the main magnetic door outside the banquet hall. Trump, Vice President Vance, First Lady Melania, and cabinet members were urgently evacuated, and none were injured. One Secret Service agent was hit by a bullet but was unharmed due to wearing a bulletproof vest. The suspect was armed with a shotgun and a pistol and was arrested; his identity and motive have not yet been disclosed. The dinner will be held again within 30 days.

Among the four incidents, Trump himself was only grazed by shrapnel in the July 2024 Butler incident; he was unharmed in the other three. The latter three incidents all took place within the Secret Service’s protection scope, prompting repeated reviews of U.S. Secret Service security protocols. Media outlets such as BBC have previously described these kinds of incidents as part of a “new normal” of political violence in the United States.