The Patriot Post® · Another Day, Another Assassination Attempt

In the wake of yet another attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Washington Democrat Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez put forth a novel suggestion for her fellow Democrats: “Please stop trying to murder the president.”

Hmm … why didn’t I think of that?

You’ve seen the security footage by now. At 8:35 Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton — the same massive complex outside of which Ronald Reagan was shot some 45 years ago — a guy races past a security checkpoint and fires his weapon at the Secret Service before multiple agents return fire and ultimately tackle and subdue him. Interestingly, not a single agent hit the would-be assassin with a shot.

Chaos ensued in the jam-packed ballroom downstairs, and rightly so. After all, both the president and vice president were there, as were most of the men in line immediately behind them for presidential succession: House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The suspect is due in court today for his arraignment, but what are we to make of the fact that, for the third time in less than two years, a gun-wielding assailant has tried to take Donald Trump’s life? The first two times, in July and September 2024, we could pawn it off on the shoddy DEI-infected Secret Service work of a Trump-deranged Democrat administration that didn’t seem at all interested in protecting the former president’s life. But here we are in 2026, with Donald Trump’s own security apparatus firmly in place. And we get … this?

Trump was, as usual, cool under fire, both during and afterward. From the time the shots rang out at 8:35, it took less than two hours for Trump to get back to the White House and assemble his entire team behind him for an address to the nation from the Oval Office.

Trump didn’t look at all shaken by what had transpired. Indeed, he made light of it at one point. Regarding his desire for the show to go on and his initial plan to continue with the event, he laughed, “I fought like hell to stay.”

Trump also reflected the danger that the job of president entails — at least among presidents of consequence. No one wanted Joe Biden dead, but lots of Democrats want Donald Trump dead. “I’m here to do a job,” he said, and one got the sense that he wouldn’t be deterred in the least.

“In light of this evening’s events,” Trump added, “I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully.”

If only. Unfortunately, there seems to be something in the DNA of leftists that predisposes them to political violence.

Yesterday, during a phone interview, Trump reflected on the would-be assassin: “The guy is a sick guy. When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. … And I think his sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining about it to law enforcement. So he was a, he was a very troubled guy.”

I’ll say. But he was no idiot. He was a Caltech grad, for Pete’s sake. As for the Secret Service, Trump understandably exhibited the loyalty that he’s known for. “The Secret Service and all law enforcement was — I thought they were outstanding,” he said. “You know, you could always take a nitpick and everything else, but they were outstanding. They stopped him cold.”

But were they outstanding? No, the shooter didn’t get down the stairs and into the ballroom where 2,500 were in attendance, but that doesn’t seem to be anything to hang one’s hat on, does it?

As former Secret Service agent Richard Starpoli said on Fox News, “The threat level against the president has grown exponentially. Yet the Secret Service as an agency has refused to accept this and modify the way they do things to account for this ridiculously high threat level. … The Secret Service should never have brought the president into that building to begin with if they couldn’t secure the building. Regardless of how far out that perimeter was extended, the public was already inside the perimeter.”

Indeed, the Washington Hilton doesn’t seem to discriminate against Trump-deranged customers who check into their establishment toting assorted knives and guns just a day before an event in which the president and the first lady and a who’s who of Washington elites would be in attendance.

On Fox News this morning, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson conceded that security looked “a little lax” and “doesn’t sound like it was sufficient.” It’s hard to disagree. Indeed, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will be holding a meeting this week and, we assume, cracking some skulls about how to clean things up for major events involving the president going forward.

In any case, it’s time to build the freaking ballroom and fund the freaking Secret Service. Democrat Senator John Fetterman said to drop the TDS and build the ballroom. At this point, a left-wing judge has halted construction, saying the president has exceeded his authority and that Congress must approve it. But the new venue would have the benefit of seven-inch-thick glass on its windows, and, importantly, wouldn’t have would-be assassins inside its perimeter.

The suspect, Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, will be arraigned with so-called holding charges early this afternoon. Other, more serious charges are likely to come later. At first, he was talkative, but he’s since clammed up.

Update: Just after publishing, news broke that Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, which obviously carries a more serious sentence, a potential life term.

Barack Obama, for one, seemed puzzled by the would-be assassin’s motives: “Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondence dinner,” he tweeted, “it’s incumbent upon us all to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.”

It’s a republic, Barry. But whatever.

“Death to tyrants!” was among the lively messages of protesters outside the Washington Hilton on Saturday, and the assailant himself left plenty of clues for Obama and his fellow political-violence deniers as to his motives, including a manifesto and a critique in which he remarked that he hoped our nation’s presidential security would be improved by the time a worthwhile president gets into office.

If Democrats, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and their mainstream media brethren keep telling the American people that Trump is a fascist and a Nazi, it stands to reason that deranged Democrats will try to do the American people a favor by assassinating our own Adolf Hitler. These are the sleeper cells of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There have been plenty of tired calls for a calming down of the rhetoric, of course, but these calls are worthless and meaningless. For those looking for a change of demeanor on the Left: Good luck with that. If the Butler near-assassination didn’t do it, then this one certainly won’t. This is the Left. It’s who they are.

If I sound bitter, it’s because I am. I want my president to finish his term in office and live out his life in peace rather than with the threat of assassination hanging over his head. But that would require Democrats and leftists to change their stripes, and that certainly isn’t going to happen.

Just like Maya Angelou said, “When somebody tells you who they are, believe them.”

(Updated)