In President Donald Trump’s press briefing following the latest attempt on his life by a would-be assassin, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, sitting in the front row in the White House Press Briefing Room, still in the gown she wore to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, asked Trump if he thought he was the intended target of the gunman.
This question came within a couple of hours of when the shooter attempted to breach security and shot a Secret Service agent, who survived thanks to a bulletproof vest, before being subdued. Trump said he was intercepted at the outer layer of his protection detail — the “first line of defense.”
Since the shooter did not get anywhere close to the president, Collins’ question is a fair one, even though it seems pretty likely the president was the target. After two earlier overt attempts on his life and the steady number of death threats he receives, he appears to have been the obvious subject of the shooter’s plans.
But what Trump said in response is worth noting. The magnanimous Trump, still wearing his tuxedo, respectfully told Collins that he wasn’t sure if he was the target, but he added that he has studied a lot of assassinations. I’m going to go out on a limb and say his interest in the subject really piqued after July 13, 2024, when a would-be assassin shot and struck Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pa.
Trump told Collins, more humbly than is characteristic for him in this room, that he could have been the target because his presidency has been “impactful.” He said that with presidencies that aren’t impactful, “they leave you alone.” But in his case, he said, just look at “the list.” He said it backs up his claim, and he’s right.
Not all of the most impactful presidents experienced direct attempts on their lives while sitting in the White House, but most who have been the target of attempted assassinations were, to varying degrees, consequential in some way.
He reiterated that point later in the briefing while commenting on the fortitude of his administration in its continued pursuit of his agenda.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just NAILED IT then WALKED OUT of the briefing room after the shooting
“It doesn’t happen to people that don’t DO anything!”
“It’s NOT gonna deter me! From winning the war in Iran..we will CONTINUE to do a great job.” 🔥
“Thank you very much!” pic.twitter.com/Ym33f16MfT
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 26, 2026
“It comes with the territory. If you want to do a great job, I really believe that….It doesn’t happen to people that don’t do anything,” he said, shortly before wrapping up the briefing and exiting the room.
In addition to Trump, other presidents who were targeted for assassination include Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Ronald Reagan, Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt famously continued speaking after being shot, pausing briefly before insisting on finishing his speech.
This is not to say that all of these men were equally “impactful” on the trajectory of the country, but Trump has a point. If you do nothing, they do leave you alone. Trump has done quite a bit. He’s been impactful. He is being impactful, and it seems that long before this latest attempt on his life, he made peace with the risks he was taking in order to achieve what he wants to achieve. This was self-evident.
Trump is rarely described as “selfless.” As for the people who were in the room with him, most of them hated him before they walked into that room. Tonight was the first time they got to experience for themselves the real danger Trump faces every day. They not only got to watch how he handles it, but because they were witnessing this as they tried to hide under tables, they could feel it, too. Nothing is more persuasive than feeling it. As a result, they could no longer ignore or downplay the simple fact that he accepts the risks because he is trying to leave the country better than the way he found it. One word for this is “courage,” but don’t tell the legacy media I told you that.
On hand at the dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., was a crowd of 2,700 that included members of the news media and their “plus ones.” It’s impossible to speculate on what effect this event had on all of them, or if anything will change. Experience tells me nothing material will change in Trump’s relationship with the media.
But one person stands out in my mind: the chair of the event, Weijia Jiang of CBS News and the current president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. She was on the dais with Trump when the shooting happened.
Before the shooting, you can see on video how relaxed she was.
President Trump was rushed off of the stage by Secret Service at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. pic.twitter.com/U71YqZdmno
— richlux713 (@RichLux713) April 26, 2026
After the shooting and once the room settled down, Jiang had to take to the podium and tell the room the event would continue at another time. In this video, you can see she was still visibly shaken by the evening’s events.
Weija Jang, President of the White House Correspondents’ Association, relayed the president’s message to the crowd, saying, “Thank God everybody is safe. And thank you for coming together tonight. We will do this again. Thank you.” pic.twitter.com/ZVYroEBZoL
— The National Desk (@TND) April 26, 2026
And later in the briefing with Trump, hers was the first question he took, and it was as conciliatory as it gets in that room. But take note of Jiang’s demeanor as Trump responds to her question. It appears, at least to me, that regardless of how she may have felt about Trump before the evening, something had changed by this point.
White House Correspondents Association president and CBS senior WH correspondent Weijia Jiang gets the first question during the post-shooting press conference. She notes his unfortunate history with such attacks and wanted to know what was going through his head:
JIANG: As you… pic.twitter.com/Kmv2dLiXI3
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 26, 2026
For those few members of the media who are open to it, maybe just a handful allowed themselves to see Trump as human for a change.
I’m not getting my hopes up, but I’d be remiss not to mention this. Meanwhile, Trump may have just punctuated his presidency in a way that he himself never anticipated, and the timing of his statements in this particular briefing may be just the thing to make sure his framing of an “impactful” presidency sticks for the rest of his term. Trump has been and will be impactful, and as long as he lives, nothing will stop him.
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