Blanche: Suspect Likely Targeted Trump, Officials at Dinner Event Shooting

President Donald Trump and members of his administration were the likely targets of a suspect who fired on a Secret Service agent at the White House Correspondents’ Association ​dinner in Washington Saturday night, U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“It does appear that he did, in ​fact, have set out to target folks ​that work in the administration, likely including the ⁠president,” Blanche said.

The suspect likely traveled ​from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to the District of Columbia by train, Blanche said.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump were evacuated from the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening after a Secret Service agent was shot. The president later said the agent was “doing great.”

According to Interim D.C. Chief of Police Jeff Carroll, the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. “As he ran through that checkpoint, members of law enforcement from the United States Secret Service intercepted that individual,” Carroll said at a press briefing Saturday night.

Trump shared photos on Truth Social of the suspect on the ground with his arms behind his back, and security footage showing a man rushing through the security. The White House has not released the name of the suspect.

“He was running full blast,” Trump said during a press briefing at the White House after the incident. “And they got him before they got any further. I was very far away.”

The president also complimented law enforcement on Truth Social. “Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely,” he wrote in a post.

Trump said the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be rescheduled to a later date. It was his first time attending the dinner as president and he was scheduled to deliver a speech at 9 p.m.

“We are not going to let anybody take over our society,” he said at the briefing. “We’re not going to cancel things out because we can’t do that.”

On Sunday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social about the need for a secure ballroom on the White House grounds.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built on the grounds of the White House. This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump said.

The White House released a statement from Trump late Saturday night.

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

Trump has been the target of two attempted assassinations.

On July 13, 2024, Trump was shot and injured at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter shot dead one rallygoer and seriously wounded two others before he was fatally shot by a law enforcement sniper.

In February, Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, was sentenced to life plus 84 months in federal prison for attempted assassination after Secret Service found him armed and waiting on the property line of Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach, where Trump was playing golf on Sept. 15, 2024.