Donald Trump: As president says he’s ‘studied assassinations’, we look at previous threats to his life | Trump News

Donald Trump has praised the Secret Service after shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by a man “armed with multiple weapons”.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Trump was the target of the attack, but he later compared himself to former US president Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865.

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Mr Trump told a reporter: “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, they’re the ones that they go after.”

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The president has survived multiple shootings and threats against his life over the last decade – take a look at the timeline below.

February 2026

A man was shot dead by the Secret Service after trying to “unlawfully enter” Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Austin Tucker Martin, 21, who was armed with a shotgun and gas canister, had raised his gun “to a shooting position” before he was shot, according to Palm Beach County officials.

Martin was believed to have travelled from North Carolina, and his cousin later described the family as “big Trump supporters”.

Donald and Melania Trump were in Washington at the time of the incident.

September 2024

A man hiding in bushes with an AK-47-style rifle attempted to assassinate Mr Trump as he played golf in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Ryan Routh, 59, fled and abandoned an assault-style rifle but was arrested the same day.

He was later jailed for life without parole, attempting to stab himself in the neck with a pen after the verdict was announced.

July 2024

Mr Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, after eight shots were fired as he spoke at the campaign rally.

Shortly after God Bless The USA was played, and around eight minutes after Mr Trump began speaking, he was shot and wounded in the upper part of his right ear, causing “much bleeding”.

The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service counter snipers at the scene, and Mr Trump was bundled from the stage.

One rally attendee was killed and two others seriously injured in the attack.

Images of a bloodied Mr Trump defiantly pumping his fist to the crowd after the shooting were widely shared following the incident.

July 2024

Earlier this year, a Pakistani man was convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians, following Washington’s killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

Asif Merchant, 47, was convicted of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending ​national boundaries” at the behest of Iranian authorities, according to the Department of Justice.

He was arrested in 2024 as he was about the leave the US, having met undercover officers who pretended to be potential hitmen.

Tehran denied accusations that it sought to kill Mr Trump ​or other ⁠US officials.

Merchant admitted to ​joining the plot with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps but testified he did ​so to protect his family in Tehran.

June 2016

A 20-year-old British man was jailed after trying to grab a police officer’s gun at a rally in a Las Vegas casino, later saying he drove to the event to try to kill the then presumptive Republican nominee.

Michael Sandford, 20, of Dorking, Surrey, was unemployed, living out of his car and had undergone treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia, according to authorities. He was unlawfully in the US after overstaying his visa by 10 months.

Sandford was later jailed, and served around half of his year-long sentence, before returning to the UK.