Trump describes third assassination attempt: 'They go after consequential presidents'

President Donald Trump said he wants the White House Correspondents' Dinner rescheduled within 30 days after a gunman opened fire at the event April 25, in what the president called the third attempt on his life.

>> Trump evacuated after shooting at White House correspondents’ dinner, suspect in custody << 

Speaking with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell in an interview that aired on 60 Minutes April 26, Trump recounted the moments of chaos after suspect Cole Thomas Allen ran through metal detectors at the Washington Hilton and discharged one or two rounds before being subdued by Secret Service agents.

No one was killed. One Secret Service agent was struck by gunfire but was wearing a bulletproof vest, Trump said, adding that the agent initially refused to be taken to the hospital.

A third assasination attempt

Trump said the attack was the third assassination attempt against him, following a 2024 shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — where a bullet grazed his ear — and a second incident at his golf course in Florida.

He also said he slowed his own evacuation from the ballroom because he wanted to assess the situation himself.

Asked why he believed so many people were trying to kill him, Trump connected the attempts to the scale of his presidency.

"They go after consequential presidents," he said. "They go after presidents that do things,” citing Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley as historical parallels.

He also referenced ongoing war in Iran and recent conflict with Venezuela, which he said the U.S. won "very decisively," as evidence of his administration's consequential record.

When O'Donnell asked him, Trump rejected the idea that his policies were driving the threat against him, saying he thinks only about what is good for the country rather than how his actions might be received.

He pointed to immigration as an example, saying his administration inherited an unprecedented border crisis with as many as 25 million people having entered the country illegally — many of them, he said, criminals released from foreign prisons. He argued his response was not controversial but necessary.

He applied the same logic applied to his stances on “transgender” policies and men competing in women's sports. 

"I don't think they're controversial," he said. "I think the other side is controversial."

The suspect and his manifesto

Allen, a Caltech grad, had been staying at the Hilton since April 24, according to Trump, who said he was briefed on the case the morning of the interview. Senior U.S. officials described a manifesto Allen allegedly emailed to family members before the attack.

Trump said Allen had been raised as a Christian and was once a member of a Christian club at Caltech before he was radicalized. Allen's brother and sister had both reported him to police, the president said, and his parents appeared on television the night of April 25 looking "devastated."

"He's a smart guy, but he's a sick guy," Trump said. "Some of them are very smart."

Trump described the shooting as the work of a "lone wolf" and said there was no indication of a broader threat, “but we may find out something else.”

The interview grew heated when O'Donnell read aloud from the suspect's manifesto, in which Allen reportedly wrote that he was "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes," in an apparent reference to Trump.

"You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things," he told O'Donnell. "You're a disgrace. But go ahead. Let's finish the interview."

"I got associated with all-- stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated," he said.

O'Donnell pressed Trump on Allen's apparent political motivations, including his participation in a "No Kings" protest in California and his membership in a group called the Wide Awakes.

Trump said such rhetoric was dangerous and funded by his political opponents, citing the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Security gaps and a call to rebuild

Trump acknowledged that Allen's speed in breaching the perimeter — estimated at roughly 45 yards — was remarkable, but said the Secret Service responded professionally once the threat was identified.

"I think the NFL should sign him up," Trump said of Allen's sprint. "He was fast."

The president suggested that security equipment should be moved further outside buildings in the future. He also touted a new ballroom being constructed on White House grounds, which he said would include bulletproof glass and a single fortified entrance point.

A night Trump said he won’t let be cancelled

Trump said the dinner — his first-ever appearance at the annual event after skipping it throughout his first term — had been going well before the shooting. He said he had planned a speech he described as "rip-roarin'," and that after the gunman was apprehended, he pushed to go back into the ballroom to deliver it.

"I don't want to have a crazy person essentially attacking our Constitution, attacking our country, changing events that are important," Trump said. "That was a night celebrating the First Amendment and the freedom of the press."

He said he observed striking camaraderie among attendees in the aftermath — including Democratic lawmakers and members of the press who he said approached him personally.

"People that weren't necessarily on my side from the other party were going, 'Way to go,'" he said. "There was spirit in that room. It was like the whole country was together."

Trump said he wants the dinner to happen again soon.

"Tell them to get it going," he said. "We should do it within 30 days, and they'll have even more security, and they'll have a bigger perimeter. We can't let something be canceled by a crazy person."