Trump, White House targeted: 4 shooting, assassination attempts on US President

On a day when Trump was working to negotiate a deal with Iran, a shooting outside the White House stole the spotlight as a gunman opened fire at a checkpoint.

The 21-year-old shooter, later identified as Nasire Best, was shot dead by US secret service agents in a shoot-out during which a bystander was also struck.

After Sunday’s incident, Trump said the gunman had a “violent history and possible obsession” with the building.

“Thank you to our great Secret Service and Law Enforcement for the swift and professional action taken this evening against a gunman near the White House, who had a violent history and possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump, 79, has been the target of four alleged assassination attempts — including todays — since he started running for President for a second term.

April 25, 2026

A gunman fired shots in the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on April 25, causing President Donald Trump and his cabinet to be rushed out before the suspect was taken into custody.

Guests at the Washington Hilton dinner took cover when shots were heard, video footage showed. Soon after, Secret Service agents rushed towards Trump, escorting the president and his cabinet from the ballroom.

The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, charged the Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel’s lobby area and was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, Carroll said. As the suspect ran through that checkpoint, Secret Service members intercepted him.

Allen is now facing federal charges of attempting to assassinate the president. The California resident also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint.

July 13, 2024

On July 13 at a rally in Butler, Trump was targeted in Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire, killing one person and wounding Trump in the ear, less than four months before the November 5 election.

The candidate was otherwise unharmed, and the 20-year-old gunman was killed at the scene.

Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out. He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents swarmed and covered him. He emerged about a minute later, his red “Make America Great Again” hat knocked off, and could be heard saying “wait, wait,” before agents ushered him into a vehicle.

September 2024

Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt as a gunman hid undetected for nearly 12 hours on the edge of the golf course where Trump played in September of 2024, two months after a shooting at the Pennsylvania rally.

Trump’s desire to golf, in private, at one of his Florida clubs meant that agents did not perform the sort of routine site survey that might have led them to find the alleged gunman before Trump came within a few hundred yards of where the man had holed up for hours, with food, near the fifth hole of the Trump International golf course.

A Secret Service agent spotted the suspected gunman at the Florida golf course, glimpsing the muzzle of his AK-47-style rifle. The agent opened fire, driving him away before he had a direct line of sight to Trump or could fire a shot.

The suspect, Ryan Routh, was apprehended shortly after.

Trump has cited security concerns as one of his reasons for building a ballroom at the White House, tearing down the East Wing after taking office again last year.

The $400 million project currently under construction will feature, according to the New York real estate magnate, six floors below the highly secure “drone-proof” ballroom, including an underground military hospital.

Inputs from AFP, Reuters