Trump Can’t Stop Lying About the Attempts on His Life |
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Trump Can’t Stop Lying About the Attempts on His Life
The president’s falsehoods about the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting continue a grim pattern.
Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Donald Trump’s habitual sleaziness is so repugnant that it erases any sympathy he might deserve—even when he’s the clear target of violence, as he was this weekend, when he survived the third serious assassination attempt against him in the last two years. One reason could be that he seems unable to be honest about anything that happens to him, including his near-death.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) in Washington, which Trump was attending for the first time in his presidency; nobody was seriously injured, and the suspect, who has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, was quickly apprehended. The two earlier attempts took place in 2024 when Trump was running for the presidency. The first, and most significant, was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, when a gunman shot Trump in the ear. The second was at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024.
Strikingly, after all three of these incidents, Trump told flagrant untruths.
In 2024, Trump repeatedly blamed Democrats as a whole for the attacks on him, despite the fact that the motives of the two would-be assassins were murky and not easily traceable to partisan politics. In a Twitter post the day after the Palm Beach event, Trump wrote,
The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!
The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!
The alleged WHCD assassin, Cole Tomas Allen, wrote a manifesto offering this motive: “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes”—a reference that any reasonable person could link to Trump. On Sunday, Norah O’Donnell interviewed Trump on 60 Minutes, where they had this exchange after she quoted from the manifesto:
Trump: I knew you would [read that] because you’re horrible........