Donald Trump has spoken out after reports of an attempted shooting disrupted the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on Saturday night.
The yearly gathering was a notable moment for the president, as it was described as his first appearance at the dinner while in office, following previous years when he chose not to attend.
According to accounts from inside the venue, the evening began routinely, with Trump greeted warmly as guests settled in and food service started.
But the atmosphere reportedly shifted within minutes, when five gunshots were said to have rung out around the Hilton hotel ballroom, triggering a rapid response that included an emergency evacuation of the President and senior officials, and the eventual cancellation of the event.
Afterwards, Trump spoke to reporters and was asked what it felt like in the moment, particularly as this was described as the third time a shooting has occurred near him.
“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a little bit. The fact we were sitting right next to each other, and the First Lady on my right, and I heard a noise and thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray going down – I’ve heard that many times – it was a pretty loud noise, and it was from pretty far away.
“He hadn’t breached the area at all before we got him. It was quite far away – but it was a gun. Some people really understood that pretty quickly, others didn’t. I was watching to see what was happening, but probably should’ve gone down even faster.”
He also described how Melania Trump reacted, suggesting she immediately sensed something was wrong.
Speaking about how his wife had responded, Trump continued: “Melania was very conscious of what happened. I think she knew immediately what had happened – she was saying ‘that’s a bad noise’. We were whisked away along with other people.”
Trump then credited the response from security and police, saying the situation escalated and ended within seconds.
Trump then went on to praise law enforcement officials for their swift intervention, as he added: “The performance of the secret service, the police – all of law enforcement – was really very good. “It was very quick. There wasn’t much time to be thinking as it was mere seconds before we were out the door.”
Officials reportedly detained one suspect quickly. In the aftermath of the security scare, the dinner did not continue, though Trump said he wanted it rearranged for the near future.
“We very much wanted to continue. I don’t like to let these sick people, these thugs, these horrible, horrible people, change the fabric of our lives or change the course of what we do.
So we held out right until the end, but they didn’t want to take a chance and I understand that’s protocol. But we’ll hopefully be doing one within the next 30 days or sooner.”
He also alluded to remarks he had prepared for the dinner, suggesting he reconsidered the tone given the circumstances.
Hinting at his planned speech from the night that may now never be heard, Trump continued: “I am ready, willing and able! I was all set to really rip it and I said to my people, this would really be the most inappropriate speech to give – so I’ll have to save it. I don’t know if I can ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight. I think I’ll probably be very boring and nice next time. We’re going to have a great event.”
During further questioning, Trump was asked about being targeted again, in light of what was described as two previous failed attempts on his life.
Trump responded: “I’ve studied assassinations and I must tell you, the most impactful people – the people that do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, those are the ones they go after.
“They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much because they like it that way. When you look at the people, whether it was an attempt or successful attempt, they’re very impactful people. They’re big names.”
“I hate to say I’m honoured by that. I’ve done a lot. We’ve taken this country from being a laughing stock for years, now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. There’s a lot of people that are not happy about that.”