Late Saturday after authorities took a suspect into custody, President Donald Trump took a noticeably conciliatory tone, calling for Americans to set aside their differences and seek bipartisan healing after what he described as another attempt on his life.
Trump said he believed he was the target of the incident and called violence a growing problem tied to politics, saying the presidency was “a dangerous profession” and that “No country is immune.” Speaking at a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday, he described the moment as a familiar shock, telling reporters, “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes.”
Authorities were trying to determine what happened and why, according to the Associated Press report, and a suspect was taken into custody. The suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, and officials described the incident as an attempt by a man with guns and knives to rush past the security perimeter inside the Washington hotel where Trump was about to address the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Trump also linked his remarks to what he said had changed in the wake of the incident: he suggested his own personal politics may have made him a repeated target, while also urging unity in a country facing what he and others described as rising violence. He said he would have changed the direction of his prepared comments, describing an intended shift toward a “speech of love” after concerns that the event might continue.
In a Fox News Channel interview Sunday, Trump said the correspondents’ dinner had helped bring people together, and he described seeing members of the opposing political party who appeared to greet him. He also said he had originally planned to deliver a harsher address that would have been aimed at the media, but that immediately after the incident he wanted to change course with remarks that were “gonna be much different. It’ll be a speech of love.”
Trump’s calls for unity appeared alongside remarks that still reflected his usual combative style when discussing the suspect, saying, “I hated a guy like this — a sick, bad person — I hated somebody like that changing the course of our country.” The AP report also described a pattern in which Trump has made unity appeals before and then later pivoted back to sharper rhetoric.
The story also looked back at earlier episodes involving Trump. After a 2024 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump was wounded in the ear and a supporter was killed, Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two days later, and he delivered a speech emphasizing the need to heal discord and division. In that same speech, the AP report said, Trump later returned to his more combative language, including false claims about the 2020 election and criticism of then-Democratic President Joe Biden.
In another 2024 incident in September, the AP report said Secret Service agents fired at a man armed with a rifle while Trump played golf at a resort club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The AP reported that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf partner during the second incident, described Trump’s initial reaction as “courageous and stoic,” and that Trump soon afterward focused repeatedly on “radical” Democrats and “left-wing lunatics,” including labeling the man sentenced to life in prison as “sick.”
The AP report said the latest episode differed from the earlier attacks because Melania Trump was with the president. Trump said Sunday that his wife “was doing great,” and he described her reaction the night before as being rattled but aware, saying she was “saying ‘It’s a bad noise,’” and that it “was a rather traumatic experience for her.”
The account also included the Justice Department’s view of the underlying climate. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told ABC’s “This Week” that threats against leadership have existed for a long time and added, “There is something unique about the threats against President Trump and his Cabinet that is disgusting,” while saying that increasingly polarizing rhetoric was partly to blame.
Security planning and other high-profile diplomatic business continued as well. Buckingham Palace said Sunday that King Charles III’s planned state visit to the United States would go ahead despite the incident at the correspondents’ dinner, citing discussions on security between American and British officials. The palace said the king and queen were “most grateful to all those who have worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the visit getting underway tomorrow,” with Charles and Queen Camilla scheduled to begin a four-day trip Monday, including tea with Trump and first lady Melania Trump.