By Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man armed with a shotgun tried to breach security, officials said.
The armed man fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told Reuters. The agent was hit in an area covered by protective gear and not harmed, the official said.
All federal officials, including Trump, were safe. About an hour after Trump was rushed from the event, he posted on Truth Social that a “shooter had been apprehended.”
“Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job,” Trump added.
‘GET DOWN, GET DOWN!’
Shortly afterwards, he posted, “The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition.” He said he would be holding a White House press conference on Saturday night.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the service was investigating a shooting near the main screening area at the entrance to the event.
After the sound of shots, dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people started screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled to the front of the dining hall.
Security agents pushed cabinet officials to the ground, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Other security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage and evacuated Trump and his wife. Some security personnel took up position on the stage, pointing their rifles into the ballroom. Cabinet members were then evacuated from the venue one by one.
Trump and the first lady bent down behind the dais before being hustled out by Secret Service officers. Trump stayed backstage about one hour, a source told Reuters. “We are staying,” he was overheard saying, the source said.
The event eventually was canceled for the evening. Trump posted on social media that he hoped it could be rescheduled in 30 days.
Saturday was the first time Trump has attended the correspondents’ dinner as president.
He was the subject of two assassination attempts in 2024, after he left the White House in 2021 and while he was campaigning for reelection.
The most serious occurred while Trump was campaigning at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper ear by a 20-year-old gunman. The gunman was shot dead by security personnel.
Just over two months after the Butler shooting, Secret Service agents spotted a man wielding a gun and hiding in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. It was deemed an assassination attempt and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.
The site of Saturday’s dinner, the Washington Hilton, was the scene of an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Tim Reid, Jana Winter, Nandita Bose, Jonathan Landay and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tim Reid; Editing by William Mallard and Sergio Non)
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