After a chaotic incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, Donald Trump has now survived more known assassination attempts than any other president in American history.
The arrest of the latest gunman in Washington marks at least the sixth person apprehended for trying to kill Trump since his 2016 campaign began. According to an analysis of court records and media reports, this puts him ahead of Barack Obama, who saw five known attempts during his two terms.
The list grows even longer if authorities include early-stage plots involving ISIS, agents from Iran, or a radicalized cultist from Wisconsin.
While political violence in America dates back to the 1835 attempt on Andrew Jackson, the sheer frequency of attacks targeting Trump over the last decade has stunned security experts.
The latest incident involved Cole Allen, who federal prosecutors say stormed the Saturday dinner intending to commit a massacre. According to the Department of Justice, Allen’s actions were “an anti-democratic act of political violence” that could have “destabilized the entire federal government” due to the high-ranking officials in the room.
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The history of these threats is as varied as it is violent. In 2016, Michael Sandford, an English national, tried to snatch a police officer’s gun at a Nevada rally to kill Trump, later telling officers he believed the then-candidate was “racist.” Just months later, Gregory Leingang tried to steal a forklift in North Dakota with the intent to flip the presidential limousine.
The methods have often been lethal. In 2020, Pascale Ferrier was sentenced to 22 years for mailing a poison-laced letter to the White House. At her sentencing, she told the judge her only regret was that the plan failed.
The violence peaked in July 2024 during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Crooks fired several rounds from a nearby rooftop, striking Trump in the ear, killing a firefighter in the crowd, and wounding two others before Secret Service snipers killed him. The security failure led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
Only months later, Ryan Routh was caught with a rifle at a Trump golf course in Florida. Routh, a pro-Ukraine radical, was recently sentenced to life in prison.
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Last Saturday’s shooting at the Washington Hilton involved Allen sprinting past security and wounding a Secret Service agent before being restrained. Documents linked to Allen reportedly echo rhetoric calling Trump a “traitor,” sparking renewed debate over political language and event security.
Despite the recurring danger, Trump has maintained a public bravado regarding the threats. Speaking at the White House recently, he joked with an audience about his situation. “I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” he said. “I got a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?”
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